Zeffie Tilbury

Zeffie Agnes Lydia Tilbury (20 November 1863 – 24 July 1950) was an English-American actress. Early years Born in Paddington, Middlesex, England, Tilbury was the only child of the variety performer Lydia Thompson and John Christian Tilbury, a riding-master and "fashionable 'man about town'" from a comfortably wealthy background, his grandfather, of the Tilbury family firm of London coachbuilders, having created the Tilbury carriage. Her father died aged 26 in 1864; having borrowed an inexperienced horse, "All Fours", to participate in the South Essex Steeplechase at Brentwood, Essex, he was crushed by the horse when it failed to clear a fence and rolled on him. Although he didn't appear badly injured, his skull was fractured and he had suffered severe internal injuries, which caused his death the next day. Career Tilbury was known first on the London stage and on Broadway in New York City. In 1881, she debuted on stage in Nine Points of the Law at the Theatre Royal, Brighton, England.