Marion Terry

Marion Bessie Terry (13 October 1853 – 21 August 1930) was an English actress. In a career spanning half a century, she played leading roles in more than 125 plays. Always in the shadow of her older and more famous sister Ellen, Terry nevertheless achieved considerable success in the plays of W. S. Gilbert, Oscar Wilde, Henry James and others.

Terry was born in England, into a theatrical family. Her birth name was Mary Ann Bessy Terry, and she was nicknamed "Polly". Her parents, Benjamin (1818–1896), of Irish descent, and Sarah (née Ballard) (1819–1892), of Scottish ancestry, were comic actors in a touring company based in Portsmouth (where Sarah's father was a Wesleyan minister) and had eleven children. At least five of these became actors: Kate, Ellen, Marion, Florence and Fred. Two other children, George and Charles, were connected with theatre management.

Terry's sister Kate was a very successful actress until her marriage and retirement from the stage in 1867, and her sister Ellen became the greatest Shakespearean actress of her time. Her great nephew (Kate's grandson), Sir John Gielgud, became one of the twentieth century's most respected actors. Terry attended a boarding-school for girls at Sunnyside, Kingston upon Thames, together with her favourite sister, Florence.

Terry's first professional stage appearance was in July 1873 as Ophelia in a production of Hamlet directed by Tom Taylor in Manchester. Her first West End appearance came in October 1873 as Isabelle in a farce by John Maddison Morton, A Game of Romps at the Olympic Theatre, in the company of Henry Neville. This was followed by the role of Lady Valeria in Morton's All that Glitters Is Not Gold at the same theatre. In 1874, she was Hero in Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing at the Olympic. She then played a season at the Strand Theatre, and in 1875 appeared in Weak Woman by H. J. Byron.

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