Julia Arthur
Julia Arthur (May 3, 1869 – March 28, 1950) was a Canadian-born stage and film actress.
Early life
Born Ida Lewis in Hamilton, Ontario, May 3, 1869, she was the daughter of Thomas J. Lewis, a tobacco manufacturer, and Elizabeth (Arthur) Lewis. Her younger sister, Eleanor Letitia Lewis, became an actress known by the stage name, "Eleanor Dorel." Their mother was a fine Shakesperian reader, but only in an amateur way.
Ida Lewis began acting at the age of 11, in 1879, when she played the part of Gamora in The Honeymoon in some amateur theatricals in her own home. She displayed such remarkable ability, for her age, that a brilliant future for her was predicted. She made her first professional appearance in 1880 with the Daniel E. Bandmann repertoire company, as the Prince of Wales in Richard III and thenceforth she was before the public as Julia Arthur, using the first name of Julia and her mother's maiden name. Her first New York success was at the Union Square Theatre in The Black Masque a stage adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe's Masque of the Red Death by Frederick Giles.