Biography
Ellaline Terriss first saw the light of day as Ellaline Lewin on 13 April 1872 in Port Stanley, Falkland Islands, and breathed her last on 16 June 1971 in Richmond, Surrey, England. Early roles in a string of airy London musical comedies brought her initial attention, though genuine fame followed her marriage to Seymour Hicks.
He was already appearing in The Shop Girl during 1894, delivering the show’s hit number ‘Her Golden Hair Was Hanging Down Her Back’ to leading lady Ada Reeve. Once Terriss stepped into Reeve’s part, the couple’s particular onstage rapport turned the already prosperous production into an even greater success.
Over the following decade the pair regularly appeared opposite one another in a run of further stage pieces, several mounted by Charles Frohman, each one commercially successful. The titles ranged from The Circus Girl in 1896 and A Runaway Girl in 1898 to Bluebell In Fairyland in 1901, then The Cherry Girl and The Earl And The Girl in 1903, The Catch Of The Season the next year, The Talk Of The Town in 1905, The Beauty Of Bath in 1906, The Gay Gordons and My Darling in 1907, and The Dashing Little Duke in 1909.
Illness kept Terriss from several performances of the last-named show; rather than engage a substitute, Hicks assumed her role and songs in addition to his own, thereby carving an unusual chapter in theatrical annals. Their next joint musical comedy, Captain Kidd in 1910, met with failure, after which they turned to straight comedies while continuing to sing together on the British music-hall circuit. A final musical effort, Cash On Delivery in 1917, likewise failed. Hicks, knighted in 1935, died in 1949; Terriss survived him by many years and passed away only months before her hundredth birthday.
He was already appearing in The Shop Girl during 1894, delivering the show’s hit number ‘Her Golden Hair Was Hanging Down Her Back’ to leading lady Ada Reeve. Once Terriss stepped into Reeve’s part, the couple’s particular onstage rapport turned the already prosperous production into an even greater success.
Over the following decade the pair regularly appeared opposite one another in a run of further stage pieces, several mounted by Charles Frohman, each one commercially successful. The titles ranged from The Circus Girl in 1896 and A Runaway Girl in 1898 to Bluebell In Fairyland in 1901, then The Cherry Girl and The Earl And The Girl in 1903, The Catch Of The Season the next year, The Talk Of The Town in 1905, The Beauty Of Bath in 1906, The Gay Gordons and My Darling in 1907, and The Dashing Little Duke in 1909.
Illness kept Terriss from several performances of the last-named show; rather than engage a substitute, Hicks assumed her role and songs in addition to his own, thereby carving an unusual chapter in theatrical annals. Their next joint musical comedy, Captain Kidd in 1910, met with failure, after which they turned to straight comedies while continuing to sing together on the British music-hall circuit. A final musical effort, Cash On Delivery in 1917, likewise failed. Hicks, knighted in 1935, died in 1949; Terriss survived him by many years and passed away only months before her hundredth birthday.