Ada Rehan

Ada Rehan
Ada Rehan in 1897
Born	Delia Crehan (1857-04-22)April 22, 1857 County Limerick, Ireland
Died	January 9, 1916(1916-01-09) (aged 56) New York City
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actress

Ada Rehan (April 22, 1857 - January 8, 1916) was an Irish born American actress known as one of the great comediennes of her day, and typifying the "personality" style of acting in the nineteenth century.

She was born Delia Crehan in County Limerick, Ireland. When she was five years old her family emigrated to the United States and settled in Brooklyn, NY. Her date of birth was later disputed by a critic who wrote in the Boston Globe on November 24, 1888, when she should have been 29, "Ada Rehan is forty years old and over. She makes up fairly for girlish roles ... but at close sight in the cold light of day she shows her age." Many of Ada's family found work in the theater. Her older sister Kate preceded her onto the stage, and married fellow actor Oliver Doud Byron. Eventually Kate and Oliver's son, Arthur Byron, also became an actor. A second sister, Harriet, also had a long (but inconspicuous) career on the stage as Hattie Russell. Her two brothers William and Arthur were involved with the business side of theatre.

Ada's first performance was in Newark, New Jersey in a play called Across the Continent, written by her brother-in-law, in which she filled in for an actress in a minor role who was sick and unable to go on. Her appearance was competent enough that her family decided she should continue pursuing a career in the theater. It was in her next performance, with Mrs. John Drew's Arch Street Theatre of Philadelphia, that she was misbilled as Ada C. Rehan and the name stuck. Ada then went to Louisville to join the stock company of Macauley's Theatre, where she remained one season (1875–6). Subsequently, she appeared in Baltimore, Albany, and other cities with John W. Albaugh's company and played supporting roles alongside prominent actors like Edwin Booth and John Edward McCullough.