Edward Askew Sothern
Edward Askew Sothern (1 April 1826 – 20 January 1881) was an English actor known for his comic roles in Britain and America, particularly Lord Dundreary in Our American Cousin.
[2] In 1849 he appeared in his first professional engagement at Saint Helier in Jersey, as Claude Melnotte in Bulwer Lytton's The Lady of Lyons.
[3] Sothern travelled to America in 1852, first playing Dr. Pangloss in The Heir at Law in Boston, Massachusetts, with John Lacy's company at the National Theatre.
The critic Clement Scott noted that while Sothern was "as handsome a man as ever stood on the stage", he was not naturally suited to romantic roles.
[7] As a result of his success in Camille, Sothern was given a part in Tom Taylor's Our American Cousin at Laura Keene's Theatre.
[10] His ad-libs were a sensation, earning good notices for his physical comedy and spawning much imitation and merry mockery on both sides of the Atlantic.
[2] Sothern made his London debut in the role when the play ran for 496 performances at the Haymarket Theatre in 1861, earning rave reviews.
[11] The Athenaeum wrote, "it is certainly the funniest thing in the world... a vile caricature of a vain nobleman, intensely ignorant, and extremely indolent".
[2] Other plays written for the now-famous Sothern were The Woman in Mauve, by Watts Phillips; The Favourite of Fortune and A Hero of Romance by Westland Marston; A Lesson for Life by Tom Taylor; and An English Gentleman by H. J. Byron (1871) at the Haymarket.
[1][16] Sothern continued to act mostly in London until 1876, but also toured extensively in the British provinces, North America and Europe.
Sothern became popular with Robertson's crowd, including with the Haymarket's manager, John Baldwin Buckstone, actor J. L. Toole, and dramatists Byron and W. S. Gilbert, who later wrote three plays for him, Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith (1876),[17] The Ne'er-do-Weel (1878),[18][19] and Foggerty's Fairy (1881).
[20] Sothern left England to tour in America in early 1876 and wrote to Gilbert to be ready with a play by October that would feature him in a serious role.
The Era admired "the sepulchral tones, the glaring eyeballs, the long hair, the wonderful 'stage walk', the melodramatic attitudes" of his portrayal.
"[29] The same issue of The Era states that definite plans had been made for Sothern to appear at the Gaiety Theatre, London in Foggerty's Fairy, as the new play was now called, in October 1880, after the end of his American tour.
Sothern's house in Kensington, London was a resort for people of fashion, and he was as much a favourite in America as in the United Kingdom.
[3] Sothern was known as a sportsman and bon vivant and became famous for his magic tricks, conversation and, especially, his practical jokes (he was born on April Fools' Day), his passion for which amounted almost to a mania.
[33] Sothern and his friends would demand that clerks sell them goods not carried by the store in question, stage mock arguments on public omnibuses, run fake advertisements in newspapers, pay street urchins to annoy passers-by and so forth.
When the husband of actress Adelaide Neilson, Philip Henry Lee, visited New York in the mid-19th century, he had been warned about the wild, bohemian behaviour of American authors, but expressed his doubt as to the veracity of the stories.
Sothern assured him it was true and arranged a private dinner for Lee with twelve "writers and critics", who were really actors.
