Drew, Louisa Lane

Drew, Louisa Lane (1820-1897), American actress, theatre manager, and matriarch of a well-known family of actors. Born Louisa Lane in London into a theatrical family, she was a child actress there before moving to New York with her widowed mother in 1827. In America she became celebrated for many roles, especially those of Lady Teazle in The School for Scandal and Mrs. Malaprop in The Rivals, both by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. She married her third husband, the Irish-born actor John Drew, in 1850. A woman of forceful character, Drew managed the Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia, at first with her husband and after his death in 1862 by herself until 1892. Under their direction the theatre became one of America's most successful stock companies. Drew's Autobiographical Sketch was published in 1899. She trained her son, John Drew, her daughter, Georgiana Drew, and her adopted son, Sydney Drew, all of whom became actors. Georgiana married the Anglo-American actor Maurice Barrymore and was the mother of the actors Lionel Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore, and John Barrymore. The Drew-Barrymore family inspired the play The Royal Family (1927) by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman.