Born: 22 April 1857, Ireland
Died: 8 January 1916
Country most active: United States
Also known as: Bidelia Crehan
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
Ada Rehan, an American actress, born in Limerick, Ireland, original name Crehan, came to America as a child, made her first appearance in Newark, NJ, when she was fourteen.
Later, for some years, she gained her experience in stock companies in Philadelphia, Baltimore and Albany. In the latter company she is said to have played some ninety characters, among them Ophelia to Booth’s Hamlet and Lady Anne to McCullough’s Richard III. But her period of great success began when Augustin Daly engaged her in 1979 for the company with which opened Daly’s Theatre in New York. With him she remained till his death, twenty years later – a period that has been called the “golden age” in American theatrical achievement. She played a wide range of parts in Shakespearian comedy in Old English comedies, her Lady Teazle in The School for Scandal being one of her most successful rôles; and in modern comedies. In London, where she appeared at intervals, she was very popular and much admired. After Mr. Daly’s death in 1899 she did relatively little acting, and made her last appearance in 1905 at the testimonial to Modjeska.
In his Vagrant Memories, the veteran dramatic critic, William Winter, says:
Daly rendered many, various, and important services to the theatre of his time, but his recognition and development of the genius of Ada Rehan was the most valuable of them all. In her stage was illumined and graced by an actress who not only preserved, but bettered, the brilliant traditions of Peg Woffington and Dora Jordon. Her rich beauty, her imposing stature, her Celtic sparkle of mischievous piquancy, her deep feeling, her round, full, clear, caressing voice, her supple freedom of movement, the expressive play of her features, the delightful vivacity of her action – who that ever appreciated could ever forget them?”
The following biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by James MacKillop. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Rehan, Ada (1857–1916), American actress, was born 22 April 1857 in Limerick, fifth of six children of Thomas Crehan and Harriet Crehan (née Ryan) of Limerick (Thomas Crehan, an adventurer and speculator, was in prison for smuggling when he met and courted Harriet Ryan, the jail matron’s daughter). Born Bridget Crehan, she took the name ‘Ada’ before going on the stage; in life she was best known as Ada Rehan, the result of a printer’s error, ‘Ada C. Rehan’, which she accepted as her professional name. Emigrating to the United States with her family in 1865, she attended elementary schools in Brooklyn, New York, but was not educated after age 15, when she began her life on the stage. Initially in small, supporting roles, she had mastered seventeen speaking parts, from farce to Shakespeare, before she was 18, testimony to extensive apprenticeship. During much of her life she lacked a permanent residence, as she was constantly on tour in North America, later in Europe, usually performing six days a week, with Wednesday and Saturday matinées. She joined the Arch Street Theatre of Philadelphia, establishing an admired critical reputation before working with a succession of stock companies. In 1879 she joined the company of John Augustin Daly, for whom she became a leading performer of the New York stage as well as the London stage from 1884. His dominance over her career has been compared to that of the fictional Svengali and Trilby. Her first role on Broadway was in Daly’s version of ‘L’assommoir’, and later she opened Daly’s own theatre as Nelly Beers in ‘Love’s young dream’. Grey-eyed, fair-skinned, and dark-haired, she enjoyed a beauty known at the time as ‘Celtic’. Not often seen in Irish roles, she did appear on stage with Dion Boucicault as well as in his plays, met Oscar Wilde, and exchanged letters with George Bernard Shaw. Versatile and adroit, she appeared in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century English comedies, melodramas, plays by the elder and younger Alexandre Dumas, and the contemporary dramas of Arthur Wing Pinero. Many of her greatest roles were Shakespearean: Viola in ‘Twelfth Night’, Portia in the ‘Merchant of Venice’, and Rosalind in ‘As you like it’, performed at Stratford-upon-Avon. The greatest triumph of her career came when she was 31, playing Katharina in the ‘Taming of the shrew’ for the opening (29 May 1888) of Daly’s Gaiety Theatre, Leicester Square, London. From 1879 to 1899 she was the most loved actress of the New York stage, exceeded in the English-speaking world only by Ellen Terry (1847–1928). From this acclaim she suffered a precipitous fall, when the arch and artificial style of her and Daly’s comedy fell out of fashion. Her last public appearance was in May 1905. Although a semi-invalid in later years, she lived in affluent comfort from astute investments, and divided her time between England and New York City, where she died 8 January 1916. She never married and bore no children.