Charles Walter Couldock

[1] Born in Long Acre, England, he made his stage debut in Shakespeare's Othello at London's Sadler's Wells Theatre in 1835.

[2] He was a part of traveling and stock companies in England before obtaining more stable positions in Birmingham and Liverpool in 1845.

Actress Charlotte Cushman enticed Couldock to travel to the United States in 1849, where he made a successful American debut on 8 October 1849 in The Stranger.

[3] American National Biography (1999) describes Couldock as being of "the old-school sentimental style of acting which required great emotive power and a command of the sweeping gesture" and at his best "in maudlin domestic pieces" where "he gave convincing life to a gallery of uniquely American stage characters."

ANB also notes that while "recognized as an important theatrical figure both in his own time and in ours, Couldock has not received sustained scholarly attention from historians ...."[1][4] Harper's Weekly noted Couldock's broad popularity in 1895: "If there is any adult American who does not know Charles Couldock, it must be a resident of some very remote place, or a person reared with more than ordinary success in the belief that play-going is a sinful pastime.