Sydney Cowell

Sydney Mary Cowell (1846–1925) was a British actor, noted for her comic roles on New York's Broadway.

Life Sydney Mary Cowell was born in London in 1846. Her paternal grandfather was Joseph Cowell. Her father's sister was the actor, stage manager and writer Sidney Frances Bateman. Her cousins, Kate and Ellen Bateman, were also on the stage.

Cowell made her own stage debut in February 1864, playing the part of cupid in a production of Ixion at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Liverpool. In 1866 she joined the Theatre Royal in Edinburgh as a soubrette and burlesque actor. After a brief stint at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth, in 1869 she took the title role in Cinderella at the Prince of Wales's Theatre Liverpool. She then played Oberon in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Queen's Theatre in the West End of London. Later in the 1880s, Cowell remarried, to fellow comic actor Raymond Holmes. She took a break from acting and touring on health grounds until 1895. By 1909, Cowell was living at the Edwin Forest Home in Holmesburg, Pennsylvania.