19 Facts About Lydia Thompson

Lydia Thompson's career began to decline in the 1890s, but she continued to perform into the early years of the 20th century.

Lydia Thompson was the second of three surviving children, including actress Clara Bracy.

Lydia Thompson's father died in 1842, and her mother remarried Edward Hodges.

Lydia Thompson gained wider public attention later that year at the St James's Theatre in The Spanish Dancers, a burletta by Thomas Selby, playing the famous dancer Senora Perea Nena.

The youth and beauty of Miss Lydia Thompson gave an additional charm to her Andalusian feats.

Lydia Thompson then returned to complete the season at the St James's in Cupid's Ladder and the fairy spectacle, The Swan and Edgar.

Still a teenager, Lydia Thompson toured through Europe for over three years.

Lydia Thompson played Norah in the first production of Edmund Falconer's comedy Woman, or, Love Against the World, as Blondinette in Little Red Riding Hood and had a role in the William Brough burlesque of The Colleen Bawn, called The Colleen Bawn Settled at Last.

Lydia Thompson married John Christian Tilbury, a riding-master, in 1863 and soon gave birth to a daughter.

Lydia Thompson returned to the stage in The Alabama at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

Lydia Thompson joined Henderson's company at Prince of Wales's Theatre, Liverpool, together with the rising young actors Squire Bancroft, Marie Wilton and Henry Irving.

Lydia Thompson married Henderson, and together they sailed in August 1868 to the United States.

Lydia Thompson headed a small theatrical troupe, adapting popular English burlesques for middle-class New York audiences by adding topical and local references and reworking the lyrics of popular songs.

Lydia Thompson's adaptations preserved the rhymed couplets and comic puns of the burlesque form.

Lydia Thompson's productions included wit, parody, song, dance, spectacle, music and strong, clever women characters.

Lydia Thompson separated from Henderson, but the two continued to work together into the 1880s.

Lydia Thompson returned to New York following the death of Henderson in 1886 and again in the winter seasons of 1888 and 1891.

Lydia Thompson next starred in the French vaudeville-operette Babette, but her voice was judged inadequate.

Lydia Thompson recited a rhymed "farewell address" written for her by Gilbert.