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Ellen Terry

 (British actress)

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On 20 March 1902, two days before actors Ellen Terry and Sir Henry Irving sailed for England after their last major tour together in the United States, aspiring American actor and playwright named Elmer Blaney Harris wrote from his apartment in New York City to his mother in Oakland, California:  

"... Miss Terry is a corker.........Gave me her London address, and her address at Stratford on Avon, the Red House,* where she goes to play revivals of Old English comedies during the week of Shakespeare's birthday ...

* Ellen Terry's "idyllic retreat" in Gustard Wood Common, near Weathampstead, England.  She returned there in March to play Katherine in Henry VIII for the Shakespeare Birthday Festival.

From a small village booklet "Wheathampstead" issued under the auspices of the Wheathampstead Parish Council :-

" A short walk across the fields brings us to The Firs, Gustard Wood where Ellen Terry was born.  She and Sir Henry Irving frequently visited Wheathampstead to catch trout at "The Fisheries," which at that time (1910) belonged to Lord Northcliffe.

There appears to be an error above regarding the place of birth as a more comprehensive biography gives Coventry :-

Dame Ellen Terry, GBE (February 27, 1847 – July 21, 1928) was an English stage actress. Terry became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain.  Alice Ellen Terry (she reversed her names by the time of her first marriage) was born in Coventry, England,

Updated 16 Jan 2008

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