Louisa Lane Drew (January 10, 1820 – August 31, 1897) was an English-born American actress and theatre owner and an ancestor of the Barrymore acting family.[1] Professionally, she was often known as Mrs. John Drew.
Life and career
Mrs. John Drew as Mrs. Malaprop in an all-star Broadway revival of The Rivals (1895)
Louisa Lane was born in London, England, the daughter of Eliza Trentner (1796–1887), a singer and actress, and Thomas Frederick Lane (1796–1825), an actor and theatre manager.[2][3][4][5] Louisa and her mother came to America when she was six years old. She proved to be a child prodigy playing five different adult roles within one play at the age of eight in 1828. As a young woman and strolling player, her theatrical travels took her, her mother and half sisters as far away as Jamaica, by sailing ship, where one of her step fathers died. She returned to the United States in 1847 to support Junius Brutus Booth.[2] She appeared in several plays with both him and his son, John Wilkes Booth, who would later assassinateU.S.PresidentAbraham Lincoln.[6]
In May 1895, the aged Mrs Drew appeared in an all-star revival of Sheridan'sThe Rivals.[10][11] In 1897, an ailing Louisa Drew spent her last summer at her annual Larchmont, New York, retreat with her grandsons Lionel and John Barrymore.