English actress who became one of the most popular stage performers in both Great Britain and North America. For 24 years (1878–1902) she worked as the leading lady of Sir Henry Irving in one of the most famous partnerships in the theatre. In the 1890s she began her famous “paper courtship” with George Bernard Shaw, one of the most brilliant correspondences in the history of English letter writing.
The Reader’s Notebook: Dame Ellen Terry
National Portrait Gallery, London