(1860-1916) Delia Crehan was born in Ireland, immigrated to the United States, and became one of the more popular actresses in Augustin Daly’s company. She later joined John Drew’s Philadelphia troupe and it was a printer’s error there that gave her the stage-name “Ada Rehan.” She was totally devoted to the theater and her profession and never found time to marry. When she moved to London in 1884, she proved equally popular there, adding a number of Shakespearean roles to herRead more
Posts filed in: Names: Q-Z
Charles Quartermaine
(1877-1958) Although Charles Quartermaine played many parts in many kinds of plays, Shakespeare seems to have always been his center of gravity. He said, in fact, that his favorite role was Romeo. Born in Richmond, Surrey, he made his first stage appearance at Tunbridge Wells in 1896. That same year he joined Sir Frank Benson‘s company and stayed with him until 1901; he of course almost exclusively played Shakespeare during those years. Before he joined Donald Wolfit’s troupe in 1944, he playedRead more
E. H. Sothern
(1859-1933) Edward Hugh Sothern was born in New Orleans. His first American stage appearance was at the Park Theatre, New York, in 1879. His first London appearance was at the Royalty Theatre in 1881, two years before returning to the United States. In 1900, he appeared in Hamlet, his first Shakespeare performance at the Garden Theatre in New York City. In 1904, Sothern first played with Julia Marlowe in Romeo & Juliet at the Illinois Theatre in Chicago. That same year,Read more
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree
(1853-1917) Born in 1853, Tree’s real name was Herbert Draper Beerbohm. He assumed his famous stage name in the 1870s. After a string of performances, he joined Frank Benson’s company in 1886, where he played Iago before going on to London and the Haymarket Theatre where he eventually became the manager. “He elevated the Haymarket’s status as a Shakespearian playhouse, and his productions of The Merry Wives of Windsor (1889), Hamlet (1892), and Henry IV, Part 1 (1896) earned himRead more
Ernest Harcourt Williams
(1880-1957) Ernest George Harcourt Williams began his career, like so many other Shakespearean actors, with Sir Frank Benson and first appeared in London in 1900 with Benson’s company. He married another player, Jean Sterling Mackinlay in 1908, and although his professional life was interrupted by World War I, he was associated with a number of fine actors and successful managers, among them George Alexander, H. B. Irving, Dame Ellen Terry, and, of course, Frank Benson. From 1929 until 1934 heRead more
Lewis Waller
(1860-1915) Lewis Waller, born in Spain, initially studied to work in the commercial industry. He got his start in the companies of famous Dame Helena Modjeska and J. L. Toole in the 1880s. During his career, he was best known as something of a matinee-idol in the popular romantic plays of his day like The Three Musketeers and his most popular role in Monsieur Beaucaire, a dramatic adaptation of Booth Tarkington’s novel. For his portrayals, he attracted large female audiencesRead more