Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Terriss, William
TERRISS, WILLIAM (1847–1897), actor, who met his death by assassination, was son of George Herbert Lewin, barrister-at-law (a connection of Mrs. Grote, the wife of the historian, and a grandson of Thomas Lewin, private secretary to Warren Hastings). His true name was William Charles James Lewin. Born at 7 Circus Road, St. John's Wood, London, on 20 Feb. 1847, he was educated at Christ's Hospital, which he entered 4 April 1854 and quitted at Christmas 1856. Having attended other schools, he joined the merchant service, but ran away after a fortnight's experience as a sailor. On coming, by the death of his father, into a small patrimony, he studied medicine, went out as a partner in a large sheep farm in the Falkland Isles, and tried tea-planting at Chittagong and other commercial experiments, in the course of which he had experience of a shipwreck.
Terriss played as an amateur at the Gallery of Illustration, Regent Street; but his first appearance on the regular stage took place in 1867 at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, Birmingham. At the Prince of Wales's Theatre, Tottenham Street, on 21 Sept. 1868, under the Bancroft management, he was first seen in London as Lord Cloudwrays in a revival of Robertson's ‘Society.’ In 1871 he was at Drury Lane, where he had a small part in Halliday's ‘Rebecca,’ produced on 23 Sept. On a revival of the same piece on 13 Feb. 1875 he played Wilfred of Ivanhoe. On 21 Sept. 1872 he was the original Malcolm Græme in Halliday's ‘Lady of the Lake.’ He also played Doricourt many consecutive nights in a version of the ‘Belle's Stratagem,’ reduced to three acts, and produced at the Strand at the close of 1873. At the Strand he was the first Julian Rothsay in Robert Reece's ‘May or Dolly's Dilemma,’ on 4 April 1874. Back again at Drury Lane, he was Tressilian in a revival of Halliday's ‘Amy Robsart,’ and on 26 Sept. the first Sir Kenneth in Halliday's ‘Richard Cœur de Lion’ (the ‘Talisman’). He played Romeo to the Juliet of Miss Wallis, was at the Princess's on 3 Feb. 1875 Ned Clayton in a revival of Byron's ‘Lancashire Lass,’ and returned the same month to Drury Lane. In Boucicault's ‘Shaughraun’ he was the first Captain Molineux on 4 Sept. On 12 Aug. 1876 he was at the Adelphi as Beamish MacCoul in a revival of Boucicault's ‘Arrah na Pogue.’ On 18 Nov. he was the first Goldsworthy in ‘Give a Dog a Bad Name’ by Leopold Lewis, and on 11 Aug. 1877 the first Rev. Martin Preston in Paul Merritt's ‘Golden Plough.’ On 22 Sept. he was at Drury Lane Julian Peveril in W. G. Wills's adaptation from Scott's ‘Peveril of the Peak’ (‘England in the Days of Charles the Second’). He then played Leicester in a further revival of ‘Amy Robsart.’ At the Court on 30 March 1878 he played what was perhaps his best part, Squire Thornhill in Wills's ‘Olivia,’ adapted from the ‘Vicar of Wakefield,’ and subsequently reproduced, with Terriss in his original part, at the Lyceum. At the Haymarket on 16 Sept. he was the first Sydney Sefton in Byron's ‘Conscience Money,’ and on 2 Dec. the first Fawley Denham in Albery's ‘Crisis.’ He also played Captain Absolute, and Romeo to the Juliet of Miss Neilson. On the opening of the St. James's under the management of Messrs. Hare and Kendal on 4 Oct. 1879 he was the first Comte de la Roque in Mr. Valentine Prinsep's ‘Monsieur le Duc,’ and Jack Gambier in the ‘Queen's Shilling.’ At the Crystal Palace, on 17 April 1879, he was Ruy Blas in an adaptation by himself of Victor Hugo's play so named. On 18 Sept. 1880 he appeared at the Lyceum in the ‘Corsican Brothers’ as Château-Renaud to the brothers Dei Franchi of (Sir) Henry Irving, and on 3 Jan. 1881 was Sinnatus in Tennyson's ‘Cup.’ In the subsequent performance of ‘Othello’ by Irving, Booth, and Miss Ellen Terry, he was Cassio. Mercutio and Don Pedro in ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ followed. In 1883–4 Terriss accompanied Sir Henry Irving to America. During Miss Mary Anderson's tenure of the Lyceum, 1884–5, he played Romeo to her Juliet, Claude Melnotte to her Pauline, and other parts. At the close of 1885 Terriss quitted the Lyceum for the Adelphi, with which theatre henceforth his name was principally associated. He was the first David Kingsley in ‘Harbour Lights’ by Sims and Pettitt, 23 Dec. 1885; Frank Beresford in Pettitt and Grundy's ‘Bells of Haslemere,’ 25 July 1887; Jack Medway in the ‘Union Jack’ by the same writers, 19 July 1888, and Eric Normanhurst in the ‘Silver Falls’ of Sims and Pettitt, 29 Dec. He accompanied in 1889 Miss Millward, his constant associate at the Adelphi, to America, where he appeared in ‘A Man's Shadow’ (Roger la Honte), and played in ‘Othello,’ ‘Frou Frou,’ the ‘Marble Heart,’ the ‘Lady of Lyons,’ and other pieces. On 20 Sept. 1890 he reappeared at the Lyceum as the first Hayston of Bucklaw in ‘Ravenswood,’ adapted from Scott's ‘Bride of Lammermoor’ by Herman Merivale. At the Lyceum he played also the King in ‘Henry VIII,’ Faust, and on 6 Feb. 1893 King Henry in Tennyson's ‘Becket.’ On the afternoon of 5 June 1894, at Daly's Theatre, he was the original Captain Maramour in ‘Journeys end in Lovers meeting,’ a one-act proverb by John Oliver Hobbes and Mr. George Moore. In the ‘Fatal Card’ of Messrs. Haddon Chambers and B. C. Stephenson, at the Adelphi, on 6 Sept., he was the original Gerald Austen. On the first production in England of the American piece, ‘The Girl I left behind me’ of Messrs. Tyler and Belasco, on 13 April 1895, he was Lieutenant Hawkesworth. In the ‘Swordsman's Daughter,’ adapted by Messrs. Brandon Thomas and Clement Scott from ‘Le Maître d'Armes’ of MM. Mary and Grisier, and given at the Adelphi on 31 Aug., he was Vibrac, a fencing master. In ‘One of the Best,’ by Messrs. Seymour Hicks and George Edwardes, on 21 Dec., he was Dudley Keppel; and on 26 Aug. 1896 in ‘Boys Together,’ by Messrs. Haddon Chambers and Comyns Carr, Frank Villars. On the revival of Jerrold's ‘Black-eyed Susan’ on 23 Dec. 1896 he was William. When, in August 1897, Mr. Gillette's play of ‘Secret Service’ was transferred from the American company by which it was first performed at the Adelphi to an English company, Terriss took the author's part of Lewis Dumont. He had previously (5 June) gone to the Haymarket to ‘create’ the part of the Comte de Candale in Mr. Sydney Grundy's adaptation of Dumas's ‘Un Mariage sous Louis XV.’ On 9 Sept. he supported at the Adelphi the double rôle of Colonel Aylmer and Laurence Aylmer (father and son) in ‘In the Days of the Duke,’ by Messrs. Haddon Chambers and Comyns Carr. This was his last original part. On the withdrawal of this piece he resumed the part of Lewis Dumont in ‘Secret Service,’ which he acted for the last time on 15 Dec. 1897. On the evening of the following day, as he was entering the Adelphi Theatre, he was stabbed thrice by a poverty-stricken actor named Richard Archer Prince, and died in a few minutes. His tragic death evoked much sympathy, and his funeral at Brompton cemetery on 21 Dec. had the character of a public demonstration. The murderer Prince was subsequently put on his trial, and, being pronounced insane, was committed to Broadmoor criminal lunatic asylum.
Terriss married, in 1868, Miss Isabel Lewis, an actress known professionally as Miss Amy Fellowes, who survived him. He left issue two sons, one an actor, and a daughter, Ellaline (Mrs. Seymour Hicks), who is on the stage. By his will, dated 11 Nov. 1896, he left personalty amounting to upwards of 18,000l. His last residence was at 2 Bedford Road, Bedford Park, Chiswick.
Terriss had from the first great gallantry of bearing and what was popularly called breeziness of style. In two parts, Squire Thornhill and William in ‘Black-eyed Susan,’ he had in his time no superior, perhaps no equal. He kept till the close of life a young, lithe, and shapely figure.
Portraits of Terriss, in private clothes or in character, chiefly from photographs, abound.
[Arthur J. Smythe's Life of Terriss, 1898 (with numerous portraits); Pascoe's Dramatic List; A Few Memories, by Mary Anderson; Scott and Howard's Blanchard; Archer's Dramatic World, 1893–6; Era Almanack, various years; Era for 18 and 25 Dec. 1897; private information.]