Jeffreys Lewis
| Mary Jeffreys Lewis | |
|---|---|
NYPL Digital Collection
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| Born |
25 October 1852 London, England, U.K. |
| Died | 26 April 1926 (aged 72) New York City, New York, U.S.A. |
| Other names | Jeffreys-Lewis |
| Occupation | Stage actress |
| Years active | 1873 - 1926 |
| Spouse(s) | A. J. Maitland Harry Mainhall |
| Children | Harry Mainhall Jr. |
Jeffreys Lewis (abt. 1852–1926) was a British-born American actress whose career lasted long after her popularity as a leading lady had faded.
Mary Jeffreys Lewis was born in London, England, on 25 October to Irish parents of Welsh descent. Some sources give her birth year as 1855 or later, though if correct, early US census indicate she was most likely born around 1852. Lewis attended elocution classes at the Birkbeck Institute (now Birkbeck, University of London) and made her first stage appearance at the Theatre Royal in Edinburgh, Scotland. She was brought to America in 1873, probably with her mother, May, and sisters, Catherine and Constance, with veteran British actor Thomas C. King to perform on the New York stage. Her Broadway debut came on the 11 September 1873, at the New Lyceum Theatre on 14th Street and 6th Ave., playing Esmeralda opposite King's Quasimodo in Notre Dame, a failed dramatic adaption of Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Lewis’ work in Notre Dame caught the eye of John Lester Wallack and before year’s end she was playing Miss Grantham in Samuel Foote’s comedy The Liar at Wallack's Theatre on Broom Street and Broadway. Lewis stayed with Wallack for a season appearing in The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Central Park, by John Lester Wallack, The Veteran, The School by T. W. Robertson, The Shaughraun by Dion Boucicault and Rafael, an adaptation of the French play Les Filles de Marbres by Théodore Barrière.
The following few seasons were spent with Augustine Daly’s company and as a stock player at the Broadway Theatre on Broadway and 30th Street before touring the West with Daly's company and finding success in California. In the mid-1880s she embarked on a tour of Australia and possibly New Zealand for a seasons or two. Upon her return she gained popularity appearing in big cities and small as Beatrice in La Belle Russe an adaptation of a story by May Agnes Fleming, Martha Moulton in Forget-Me-Not by Herman Merivale, the Countess Clothilde in Clothilde, an adaption of a play by Victorien Sardou, the Countess Zieka in Diplomacy by Victorien Sardou and as Muriel in The Sporting Duchess By Sir Augustus Harris, Cecil Raleigh and Henry Hamilton.
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