Ada Rehan

Rehan, Ada [née Ada Crehan] (1860–1916), actress. A regal beauty and one of America's greatest performers, she was born in Limerick, Ireland, brought to America at the age of five, and grew up in Brooklyn, where she watched her older sisters adopt stage careers. It was her brother‐in‐law, Oliver Doud Byron, who helped her make her debut in 1873 as Clara in his once‐famous vehicle, Across the Continent. Rehan then joined Mrs. Drew's celebrated ensemble at the Arch Street Theatre. A typographical error in an early program there dropped the first letter of her surname, giving her the stage name she afterward employed. After two seasons with Drew and in companies in Louisville and Albany, she played Mary Standish in an 1879 revival of Augustin Daly's Pique and then played in his L'Assommoir. Her performances so impressed Daly that she joined his company and played Nelly Beers in Love's Young Dream. Under his guidance Rehan quickly became the finest and probably the most beloved of all younger comediennes. She excelled at classic comedy, including such Shakespearean roles as Mrs. Ford, Katherine, Helena, Rosalind, Viola, and Beatrice, as well as Sheridan's Lady Teazle. But she was also at home in the newer comedies Daly presented, among them the American premieres of Pinero's The Magistrate (1885) and Dandy Dick (1887), in which she played Mrs. Posket and Georgiana Tidman respectively. Along with Mrs. Gilbert John Drew, and James Lewis, Rehan was a mainstay of Daly's ensemble. William Winter wrote, “Her physical beauty was of the kind that appears in portraits of women by Romney and Gainsborough—ample, opulent, and bewitching—and it was enriched by the enchantment of superb animal spirits. She had gray‐blue eyes and brown hair.” He added, “Her acting, if closely scrutinized, was seen to have been studied; yet it always seemed spontaneous; her handsome, ingenuous, winning countenance informed it with sympathy, while her voice—copious, tender, and wonderfully musical—filled it with emotion, speaking always from the heart.” After Daly's death she continued to appear largely in the roles in which he had cast her, but despite her skill and popularity, success eluded her, so she retired in 1905. Biography: Ada Rehan: A Study, William Winter, 1891.