Joseph W. Herbert

Joseph William Herbert (27 November 1863–18 February 1923) was a British-born American director, silent-film actor, singer and dramatist notable for being the first person to play Ko-Ko in America in a pirate production of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado (1885) before joining D'Oyly Carte Opera Company touring companies across America (1885–1890).

[1] Herbert was born in Liverpool in 1863 to Irish parents and emigrated to America in 1876 aged 13,[2][3] living in Chicago where, during his college days, he joined the local Church Choir Company as an amateur chorister.

[1][4] Herbert was the first actor to play Ko-Ko in the United States, appearing in Sydney Rosenfeld's pirate production of The Mikado in Chicago in July 1885 before appearing in one performance (breaking a temporary injunction) in the same role at the Union Square Theatre in New York in July 1885, nearly a month before the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company arrived in America with the official production of The Mikado.

Again for Stetson Herbert played King Gama in Princess Ida from November to December 1886, and he appeared as Reginald Bunthorne in Patience during January 1887 in a D'Oyly Carte approved production in New York.

[4][5] A naturalised American citizen, he married four times: in 1888 to Nanette L. Herbert with whom he had a son, the actor and singer Joseph William Herbert Jr. (1887–1960); in 1895 to the actress Adele Ritchie (divorced); the actress Billie Norton (who he met when they appeared together in It Happened in Nordland in 1904) and Mary Lines Maynard.