Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Drew

Mr. & Mrs. Sidney Drew were an American comedy team on stage and screen. The team initially consisted of Sidney Drew (August 28, 1863 – April 9, 1919) and his first wife Gladys Rankin (October 8, 1870 – January 9, 1914). After Gladys died in 1914, Sidney Drew married Lucille McVey (1890–1925), and the two performed as Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Drew. Biography Sidney Drew or Mr. Sidney Drew as he was usually billed, was an uncle of actors Lionel, Ethel and John Barrymore. Drew's origins have been the subject of speculation. His mother Mrs. Louisa Drew said she adopted him not long after the death of her husband John Drew Sr. in 1862. Researchers have speculated that Sidney was Mrs. Drew's biological child either from her late husband or from a love affair. It was noticed that she disappeared for some time to the country before returning to Philadelphia with baby Sidney. John Barrymore always said Sidney looked too much like Grandmother Louisa to be anyone else's child. In his stage career, Drew was a light-hearted leading man along with his wife, Gladys Rankin, the first Mrs. Sidney Drew. She was the daughter of McKee Rankin and Kitty Blanchard, sister of Phyllis Rankin and half-sister of Doris Rankin. In 1896, the pair introduced legitimate drama to the vaudeville stage. They entered films as a team with the old Kalem Company in 1911, but achieved greater success after their switch to Vitagraph in 1913. Gladys Rankin Drew died later that year from undisclosed causes. Drew was briefly paired with Clara Kimball Young, with whom Drew starred in the two-reel melodrama satire Goodness Gracious; or, Movies as they Shouldn't Be (1914) directed by Clara's husband James Young.