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Nat Goodwin - American Actor & Entertainer (1857-1920)
He first appeared in burlesque revues on the Boston stage. He later performed in several Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, as well as in more serious roles in Shakepearean plays, but was most acclaimed as a stage comedian and humorist. His third wife, Maxine Elliott, was a well known actress of the era and was rumored to have been a mistress of the famous financier J. P. Morgan.
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Edward L. Davenport - American Actor (1815-1877)
He first played in English theatre, but most of career was spent on the American stage where he was acclaimed for performance in both tragedies and comedies. Noted for several of his Shakespearean roles, his portrayal of Hamlet was considered to have been second only to that of the great actor Edwin Booth. Davenport's daughter, Fanny, was an accomplished actress in her own right.
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Thomas Keene - American Actor (1840-1898)
Well-known journeyman stage actor of the "heroic" school. After five years in stock theatre in San Francisco, in the 1870s he played supporting roles to the famous actor Edwin Booth. Famous for his repertory of Shakespearean roles, including Richard III, Othello, Hamlet, Louis XI, Romeo, and Cardinal Richelieu, he toured widely over for twenty years performing in smaller cities across the U.S.
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William Gillette - American Actor (1853-1937)
Best known for his portrayal of Arthur Conan Doyle's famous fictional detective Sherlock Holmes in a dramatization co-authored by Gillette and Doyle that first opened in New York in 1899, Gillette created the now stereotypical image of Holmes with his deerslayer hat and meerschaum pipe, and portrayed Holmes on stage over 1,000 times over the next thirty years.
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Minnie Palmer - American Actress (1860-1932)
She spent her early years in a convent in New York. At age 8 her parents took her to Europe where she studied German and music in Vienna, and dance in Paris. After returning from Europe serformed in her first stage play in Baltimore at age 12. In her twenties, she performed in a play produced by Lawrence Barrett, gained popularity in several stage roles, and toured the U.S. She first performed in England in 1883.
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Edward H. Sothern - American Actor (1859-1933)
He made his acting debut in 1879 with his father's theatre company. His father was also an accomplished actor. Sothern had early success in romantic adventure plays and formed his own theatre company in 1900 with his first wife, actress Virginia Harned. He later acted in Shakespearean dramas with the famous actress Julia Marlowe, whom he married in 1911.
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Francis Wilson - American Actor (1854-1935)
He made his first professional appearance in a minstrel company.
He then moved to the traditional stage, performing a variety of comedic stage roles in Philadelphia and New York in the late 1800s, and became a noted Broadway actor and playwright. His best known role was in "Erminie", a comedy in which two tramps kidnap a young bride in hopes of a obtaining ransom, but instead inadvertently free her from a marriage she dreads. The play was hugely successful and was staged over five hundred times in London and New York.
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Robert Loraine - English Actor & Aviator (1876-1935)
He was a successful stage actor for over thirty years, and was also a reknowned aviator. He made the first flight across the Irish Sea in 1910, and was also the first pilot to transmit radio messages from the air, tapping a Morse code key with his left hand, while flying with his right. He also pioneered aerial surveillance of ground troops. He was an RAF fighter pilot in World War I, serving on the Western front. Late in his acting career he also appeared in a few early sound films. His biography was entitled Actor, Soldier, Airman".
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Louis James - American Actor (1841-19??)
He was a leading player in the great actor John Drew's theatre company in Philadelphia in the 1860s, and in the early 1870s in New York with Augustin Daly's company. He was a prominent Shakespearean actor of his era, frequently performing jointly in leading roles with Lawrence Barrett and Frederick Warde.
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Maude Fulton - Actress & Screenwriter (1900-1945)
She achieved some fame as a film actress in the 1920s, but was equally acclaimed for her work as a screenwriter. Among the more well-known films, she wrote the screenplay for Don Juan (1927), Safe in Hell (1931), and The Maltese Falcon (1931). Fulton also authored a number of well-received stage plays.
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