Famous Actors!

1. Famous Actors! Ellen Terry Ruishan Tang http://www.lib.rochester.edu/Camelot/terry.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Terry Sarah Bernhardt Brenda Holloway http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Bernhardt Sir Henry Irving Georgia Taylor http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/irving_h/irving_h.html

2. Dame Ellen Terry • February 27, 1847 - July 21, 1928 • Parents Sarah and Ben were actors • Debuted professionally aged 8 as Mamillius in A Winter's Tale in April, 1856 until 1859 • Acted at the Royal Theatre in London between 1861 and 1862, were she went to Bristol • Took a break from theatre for 6 years in 1868 but returned after financial difficulty • Acted opposite Henry Irving from 1878 (30 years old) at the Lyceum Theatre • Became regarded as the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain until 1902 • Acted as Queen Katherine, Beatrice, Portia, Lady Macbeth, Guinevere • Took over management of the Imperial Theatre in 1903, which was a financial failure • Began appearing in films in 1916 • In 1920 she retired from the stage and in 1922 from film • Made a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in 1925 • Died at Smallhythe, Kent, England, aged 81, which became a museum after her death

3. Sir Henry Irving • Sir Henry Irving's name is not actually Henry Irving, he was born John Henry Brodribb • February 6, 1838 - October 13, 1905 • He began his acting career in 1856. • On the 29th of September 1856 he made his first appearance at Sunderland as Gaston, duke of Orleans, in Bulwer Lytton's Richelieu, billed as Henry Irving. • Henry Irving was an egotistical actor whose only criterion in selecting plays he wanted to show was whether they had terrific parts for him to play. • On May 24, 1895, Irving received a letter telling him that Queen Victoria had honoured him with a knighthood, the first to be given to an actor. • During his tenure at the Lyceum, Irving produced over forty plays, an average of about two a year. • In October of 1905, Irving took to the stage for the last time in the role of Becket. His last line on stage was, "Into thy hands, oh Lord, into thy hands."

4. Sarah Bernhardt • Born in Paris, France October 22 1884 • Died, March 26, 1923 • Was born as Marie Henriette Bernardt, the daughter of Julie Bernardt and a father of Dutch nationality. She added the letter "H" to both her first and last name, and used the name of Edouard Bernardt, her mother's brother, as the name of her father. This was probably done to hide the fact that her father was unknown. • Bernhardt's stage career started in 1862 when she was a student at the Comédie-Française, France's most prestigious theater. • She developed a reputation as a serious dramatic actress, earning the nickname "The Divine Sarah." • French stage actress and was referred as "the most famous actress in the history of the world"