Ada Rehan (born Bidelia Crehan; June 12, 1857 – January 8, 1916) was an American actress and comedian who typified the "personality" style of acting in the nineteenth century. Early life and career She was born Bidelia Crehan in Limerick city, Ireland, one of five siblings born to Thomas Crehan (died 1890) and Harriet (or Harriett) Ryan Crehan (died 1901). She was baptised in St Michael's Roman Catholic Church on 12 June 1857. Although by the time she applied for a U.S. passport, she had shaved a few years off and gave 1860 as her year of birth. The family surname was apparently changed to Rehan later. When she was a small child, her family emigrated to the United States and settled in Brooklyn, New York. Her year of birth was later disputed by a critic who wrote in the Boston Globe on November 24, 1888, when she should have been 31 years old (or 28 by her own reckoning later), "Ada Rehan is forty years old and over. She makes up fairly for girlish roles ... but at close sight in the cold light of day she shows her age." Ada's siblings found work in the theatre. Her sisters Harriet and Kate preceded her onto the stage. Kate married fellow actor Oliver Doud Byron. Their son, Ada's nephew, was actor Arthur Byron. Ada's two brothers, William and Arthur, were involved with the business side of theatre. Her first performance was in Newark, New Jersey, in a play called Across the Continent, written by her brother-in-law, in which she filled in for an actress in a minor role who was sick and unable to go on. Her appearance was competent enough that her family decided she should continue pursuing a career in the theatre. It was in her next performance, with Mrs. John Drew's Arch Street Theatre of Philadelphia, that she was miscalled as Ada C. Rehan and the name stuck. Ada then went to Louisville to join the stock company of Macauley's Theatre, where she remained one season (1875–76). Subsequently, she appeared in Baltimore, Albany, and other cities with John W. Albaugh's company and played supporting roles alongside prominent actors like Edwin Booth and John Edward McCullough. Fame and Augustin Daly Rehan was performing in one of Daly's own plays, Pique, produced by New York's Grand Opera House and starring Fanny Davenport when the successful theatre manager Augustin Daly