[3][4] While in his teens or earlier, Walker Whiteside attended acting classes under the tutelage of Professor Samuel Kayzer of the Dramatic Conservatory of Chicago.

[6] In October 1884, the not yet sixteen-year-old actor hired Alderman Ford, a theatrical agent from Kansas City and, on November 17, made his professional stage debut in Richard III at Chicago's Grand Opera House.

[7] He spent much of the following decade or so with Shakespearean companies, touring primarily America's Midwest, before making his New York premier in April 1893 at the Union Square Theatre, playing Hamlet and the title part in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Richelieu.

[9] On January 31, 1901, just fifteen minutes after the final curtain call of Walker's play Heart and Sword, the Coates Opera House in Kansas City caught fire and burned to the ground.

By the time the fire had spread from the boiler room, the building had been evacuated, forcing Walker's company to abandon their theatrical gear to the flames.

[7] Walker's first Broadway hit was in 1909, playing David opposite Chrystal Herne in Israel Zangwill’s The Melting Pot.

"[10] Walker played several Asian characters over his career, some evil, at least one not, that were probably comparable to those portrayed in films made in Hollywood over the first half of the twentieth century.