Lillian Lee was a stage actress in New York City beginning in the early 1880s. She was in the cast of the original Ziegfeld Follies in 1907.
Lee was only a child when she was assigned the part of Meenie in Rip Van Winkle, in a company led by Joseph Jefferson. The was then touring in Baltimore, Maryland. She proved a skilled juvenile actress. She grew into a very competent adult theatrical performer. Her first character of importance came when she replaced an ailing Rosa Rand in a play during the 1884 season.
Myra Goodwin played the leading lady in Sis, an 1885 production of the 14th Street (Manhattan) Theatre. The company of Edward Kidder also took seven plays on the road that year. One of them, Niagara, was scheduled to arrive in New York City at the beginning of 1886. Lee was engaged for the production as were Mattie Ferguson, Rose Eytinge, Harry Dalton, and others. The Irish Minstrel by Frederick Marsden was staged at Poole's Theatre, 8th Street near Broadway (Manhattan), in October 1886. W.J. Scanlan played the leading man with Lee being the primary female player.
She was in a cast of actors who presented A Midsummer Night's Dream at Manchester, Massachusetts, in July 1888. The outdoor play was performed evenings with electric light effects.
As Mrs. Jennings in Lover's Lane (1901), she was involved in a production which deals with rural life. The venue was the Manhattan Theatre on 102 West 33rd Street. In 1907 the building was demolished and replaced by a Gimbels department store in 1909.
Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch had its New York City debut at the Savoy Theatre, 112 West 34th Street, in the late summer of 1904. The stage of the theatre had been recently expanded to enable the staging of the most detailed productions. The play was an adaptation of both Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch and Lovey Mary, written by Anne Crawford Flexner. Lee acted the character of Mrs. Eichorn.