May Irwin

Actor Jun 27 (died age 42) Whitby, Ontario, Canada 1896–1905 (9 year career)

5.2 avg rating

Biography

Born in Whitby, Ontario, May Irwin started her performing career at a young age, when she began a singing act with her younger sister Flora in 1874. The act was popular, and Irwin began working as an actress when she was 21 years old. She found success and was appearing in a Broadway show called "The Widow Jones" when Thomas A. Edison saw her and co-star John C. Rice exchanging a kiss on-stage. He hired them to do the same in one of his films, The Kiss (1896). This marked the first kiss in cinem…