1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Wood, Mrs. John

WOOD, MRS. JOHN [Matilda Charlotte] (1833-1915), English actress, was born at Liverpool Nov. 6 1833, the daughter of Henry Vining, and first appeared on the stage at Brighton at the age of eight. As a young girl she played leading parts in comedy at the Theatre Royal, Manchester, and in 1852 appeared there as Ophelia. After her marriage she acted for some years in America, beginning in 1854 with The Loan of a Lover, followed by many other parts. She opened a theatre of her own in New York in 1863 but returned to England in 1866. From that time until her retirement from the stage in 1905, she was in the first rank of robust comedy actresses. Her management of the Court theatre between 1883 and 1891 saw the production of many of Pinero's best comedies. Later she appeared in elderly rôles in most of the Drury Lane melodramas, her last appearance being in Hall Caine's The Prodigal Son in 1905. She died at Birchington-on-Sea Jan. 11 1915.