DREW  , the name of a

family of American actors . JOHN DREW (4827-1862) was born in Dublin and made his first New York appearance in 1846 . He played Irish and light comedy parts with success in all the American cities, and was managerof the Arch Street theatre in Philadelphia . He visited England in 1855, and Australia in 185g, and died in Philadelphia . His wife, LOUISE LANE DREW (1820-1897), was the daughter of a London actor, and in 1827 went to America, appearing as the Duke of York to the elder Booth's Richard III., and as Albert to Edwin Forrest's William Tell . After this she starred as a child actress, and then as leading lady . She had been twice married before she became Mrs Drew in 185o . Fom 1861 to 1882 she had the management of the Arch Street theatre in Philadelphia . In 188o she toured with Joseph Jefferson. in his elaborate revival of The Rivals, playing Mrs Malaprop to perfection . She had three children, John, Sidney and Georgiana, wife of Maurice Barrymore (1847-1905), and mother of Lionel and Ethel Barrymore, all actors . The eldest son, JOHN DREW (b . 1853), began his stage career under his mother's management in Philadelphia as Plumper in Cool as a Cucumber, on the 22nd of March 1873; and after playing with Edwin Booth and others, became leading man in Augustin Daly's company in 1879 .

'His association with this company, and with Ada

Rehan as the leading lady, constituted a brilliant period in recent stage history, his Petruchio being only one, though. perhaps the most striking, of a series of famous impersonations .