Dennis Neilson-Terry

Dennis Neilson-Terry (21 October 1895 – 14 July 1932) was a British actor, theatre manager and producer, who starred in a number of films between 1917 and 1932.

He was the son of the actor Fred Terry and his wife, the actress Julia Neilson. In his early years he had been seen as a rising Shakespearean. After the First World War he specialised, as his parents had done before him, in less demanding roles in ephemeral but popular and profitable plays. While touring in southern Africa with such a repertory he contracted pneumonia and died at the age of 36.

Dennis Neilson-Terry was born in London into the Terry family of actors. His parents were Fred Terry and his wife Julia Neilson; his older sister was the actress Phyllis Neilson-Terry. He married the actress Mary Glynne and was the father of the actress Hazel Terry.

Neilson-Terry was educated at Charterhouse School and made his stage debut at Drury Lane on 12 June 1906, as a page in Much Ado About Nothing, as part of Ellen Terry's Jubilee celebrations. He made his first regular appearance on the stage under the name of Derrick Dennis, at the New Theatre in May 1911, as Silvius in As You Like It. In his parents' company he played Armand St Just in The Scarlet Pimpernel, after which he widened his Shakespearean repertoire during a year's tour with F R Benson's company, playing Lorenzo (The Merchant of Venice, Silvius, Rosencrantz in Hamlet, Paris in Romeo and Juliet, Octavius Caesar in Antony and Cleopatra, Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Malcolm in Macbeth.

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