Louise Drew

Louise Drew (1882 – April 23, 1954) was an American stage actress born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who performed on Broadway from 1901 through 1917. She came from one of the most distinguished theatrical families in American history, being part of the Barrymore family tree. Her father was John Drew, Jr., the Shakespearean actor celebrated as "The First Gentleman of the American Stage," and her mother was stage actress Josephine Baker. Drew received her education in both France and the United States.

Drew made her Broadway debut in 1901 appearing alongside her father in The Tyranny of Tears. Early in her career she also co-starred with him in The Second in Command and later in The Gay Lord Quex. Additional credits from her early years include Iris, Lady Rose's Daughter (1903), and Whitewashing Julia (1903). She shared the stage with her first cousin Ethel Barrymore, an Academy Award winner, in Her Sister and in the revivals of Trelawny of the 'Wells' (1911) and Alice Sit-by-the-Fire. Over the course of her career she appeared opposite numerous prominent performers of the era, among them Virginia Harned, Robert Edeson, Willie Collier, and Fay Davis.

Among her notable later credits were Caught in the Rain, What Would You Do?, Kiss Me Quick, A Single Man, and It Pays to Advertise (1914), in which she played the role of a French Countess. That production was subsequently revived in both stage and film versions. Drew concluded her stage career when the Broadway run of The Gay Lord Quex ended in December 1917.

In April 1917, before the close of that run, Drew married actor Jack Devereaux, who was called to serve in World War I shortly after their wedding. Devereaux had established himself as an acclaimed Broadway performer before going on to appear in silent films produced by The Triangle Motion Picture Company. The couple had one child, John Drew Devereaux, who became a Broadway performer and stage manager.

Drew died on April 23, 1954, in New York City and is interred at Mount Vernon Cemetery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.