Mabel Terry-Lewis

Mabel Gwynedd Terry-Lewis (born as Mabel Gwynedd Lewis) ( October 28 1872 – November 28 1957) was an English actress and a member of the Terry-Gielgud dynasty of actors of the 19th and 20th centuries.

After a successful career in her twenties and thirties she married and retired from the stage in 1904. Her husband died in 1917 and she returned to the theatre in 1920, continuing to act on stage and in films until the late 1940s. Among her celebrated roles was Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest, which she played opposite her nephew John Gielgud in 1930.

Mabel Terry-Lewis was born in London, the youngest of the four children, all daughters, of Arthur James Lewis (1824–1901) and his wife Kate, née Terry. Lewis was a prosperous businessman, co-owner of the haberdashery firm of Lewis and Allenby, and an amateur painter, illustrator and musician. Before their marriage, Kate Terry had been a well-known actress; her younger siblings, Ellen, Marion, Florence and Fred all followed her into the acting profession. The Lewises had no wish for any of their daughters to act professionally, but amateur theatricals were encouraged when the children were young. The author Lewis Carroll was a friend of Arthur Lewis, and on 24 January 1883 he visited the family home, Moray Lodge, for a performance of a comedietta titled Lady Barbara's Birthday given by the Lewis children and those of Ellen Terry. Also present on that occasion was W. S. Gilbert. Carroll wrote of the event:

Edith [Craig] was clever (though not very articulate) and Katie [Terry-Lewis] distinctly good: then Teddie (Edward Gordon Craig) was very good, though a little given to rant: but Mabel was the gem of the whole thing. I never saw her equal among children, except Ellen Terry herself. She is a born actress.

Mabel was the only one of the four Terry-Lewis daughters to pursue a theatrical career. Her first appearance on the professional stage was at the Garrick Theatre, in January 1895, as Lucy Lorimer in "A Pair of Spectacles," with John Hare. The Times commented, "Miss Lewis … is a tall, dark and graceful young lady, exhibiting few of the characteristics of the novice."The Manchester Guardian said that she "played the pretty little part with unaffected simplicity, and with more ease than might have been expected in a débutante".

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