Lillian Drew

Lillian Drew, born Lillian Margaret Flannery in Chicago, was an American actress active in both Broadway and silent film. She was born in August 1882 and died on February 4, 1924, at the age of 41. Her parents were Patrick J. Flannery and Marguerite M. Flannery, and all four of her grandparents were of Irish birth.

Drew appeared on Broadway in 1882, with her stage credits including the musical The Jolly Bachelors. She subsequently built a substantial career in silent film, completing more than eighty pictures, the majority of them short films produced for Essanay Studios in Chicago and Chattanooga. She was recognized for her riding abilities and gravitated toward what were described as heavy dramatic roles.

Her film debut came with The Broken Heart in 1913, a production that also featured Ruth Stonehouse. The following years brought a steady output of work, including Blind Man's Bluff (1914), The Clutch of Circumstance (1915), In the Palace of the King (1915), and The Fable of Elvira and Farina and the Meal Ticket (1915), the latter a film in which she appeared alongside Gloria Swanson. Drew continued working through 1916 on multiple productions, among them A Million for a Baby, Money to Burn, The Secret of the Night, The Other Man, My Country, 'Tis of Thee, The Woman Always Pays, and Vultures of Society. Later credits included Uneasy Money (1918) and Ruggles of Red Gap (1918). Her final screen appearance was in Children of Jazz (1923), opposite Ricardo Cortez.

In 1907, Drew married actor and director E. H. Calvert. The couple had a son, William Calvert, who pursued a career as a child actor. Drew and Calvert were separated at the time of her death. In her final years she worked as a dressmaker. Drew died in Chicago in 1924 while recovering from an injury, the cause of death being an overdose of barbital. A coroner's jury ruled her death accidental.