Nora Maude Kerin (22 October 1881 – 21 February 1970) was a British theatre actress and stage beauty of the early 20th-century.^[1]

Nora Kerin was born inBloomsbury in London in 1881,^[2] the oldest of four children of Charles James Walter Kerin (1847-1886), a cargo surveyor, and his wife Jane née Davis (1852-1920).^[3] She was the sister of the actressEileen Kerin and a cousin of the actressesJulia Neilson,Lily Hanbury andHilda Hanbury andHilda Jacobson.^[4] She was educated atQueen's College, London and in Paris.^[1]

Kerin made her stage début in 1899. She appeared inBen-Hur at theTheatre Royal, Drury Lane in London (1901–02).^[5] Her first appearance in Shakespeare was at the Queen's Theatre inManchester as Titania inA Midsummer Night's Dream, as Anne Page inThe Merry Wives of Windsor, and as Rosalind inAs You Like It. In 1903 she joined a tour of Australia playing a number of roles in the Shakespeare repertory company ofGeorge Alexander. In 1904 on her return to England she played Miranda inThe Tempest atHis Majesty's Theatre (1904–06).^[5] She was inThe Midnight Marriage (1907) opposite Norman Partriege andEric Mayne at the Lyceum, and played Juliet^[6] oppositeMatheson Lang as Romeo in his production ofRomeo and Juliet, which opened at theLyceum Theatre in London on 14 March 1908, which had a run ran of over two months.^[7]

Apparently, her acting did not match her good looks, as the review of her performance as Juliet inRomeo and Juliet at theLyceum Theatre in London on 14 March 1908 reveals:

MISS KERIN'S JULIET

"Oh, Juliet - Juliet, wherefore art thou Juliet?" This is, of course, an inversion and a parody; but, seriously, the Juliet of Miss Nora Kerin cannot be taken so. She declaims in the conventional old-fashioned style. She somehow destroys - on the stage - her own personality, and instead of looking the pink of charm and youth (as she is when "taking a call") she manages to conceal both. Many of her lines were badly spoken, falsely intonated and punctuated. She had moments - melodramatic outbursts - but she is not the personality - she has not the witching simplicity of the real Juliet.^[1][7][8]

Kerin played Princess Monica inThe Prince and the Beggar Maid at theLyceum Theatre in London (1908). She was to play Juliet again in 1909, oppositeBasil Gill as Romeo.^[9]

On 26 September 1905 at theCentral Synagogue inGreat Portland Street in London she married Cyril Aaron Michael (1881-1955), the director of a furniture company^[10] with whom she had two daughters: Joan Florence Kerin Michael (1906-1978), and Daphne Madge Kerin Michael (1909-1988).^[1][11] They divorced in 1920. In 1939 she was living inPetersfield inHampshire where her occupation was listed as “unpaid domestic duties”.^[2]

Nora Kerin Michael died in London in 1970 aged 86.

• Portraits of Nora KerinNational Portrait Gallery, London

• 1881 births
• 1970 deaths
• Actresses from London
• English stage actresses
• 19th-century English actresses
• 20th-century English actresses
• English Shakespearean actresses
• Actors from the London Borough of Camden
• People from Bloomsbury

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