Ada Rehan

Ada Rehan (April 22, 1860 - January 8, 1916), American actress, whose real name was Crehan, was born in Limerick, Ireland.

Her parents removed to the United States when she was five years old, and it was in Newark, N.J., that in 1874 she made her first stage appearance in a small part in Across the Continent. She was with Mrs John Drew's stock company in Philadelphia, John W Albaugh's in Albany and Baltimore, and other companies for several seasons, playing every kind of minor part, until she became connected with Augustin Daly's theatrical management in 1879. Under his training she soon showed her talents for vivid, charming portrayal of character, first in modern and then in older comedies.

She was the heroine in all the Daly adaptations from the German, and added to her triumphs the parts of Peggy in Wycherley's Country Girl, Julia in the Hunchback, and especially Katharina in The Taming of the Shrew, besides playing Rosalind and Viola. Miss Rehan accompanied Daly's company to England (first in 1884), France and Germany (1886).

Her life-size portrait as Katharina is in the picture-gallery, and her bust, with Ellen Terry's, at the entrance to the theatre in the Shakespeare Memorial at Stratford-on-Avon.

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.