William Payne (pantomimist)

William Henry Schofield Payne (1804–18 December 1878) was an actor, dancer and pantomime artist, who created much of the stage business connected with the character Harlequin in 19th-century harlequinades.

Born in the City of London in 1804, W H Payne was apprenticed to Isaac Cowen, a stockbroker; but in his eighteenth year he ran away, and joined a travelling theatrical company in the Warwickshire circuit.

[1] On 26 December 1831 he made his first appearance at the Covent Garden Theatre in the pantomime Hop o' my Thumb and his Brothers by Charles Farley, in which he played Madoc Mawr, the Welsh ogre, Miss Poole being Little Jack, and Priscilla Horton (afterwards Mrs German Reed) the Genius of the Harp.

[1][2][4] In 1836 Payne was stage manager at the Pavilion Theatre in Whitechapel,[5] and in 1841 he was back at Covent Garden and filled the rôle of Guy, Earl of Warwick, in the pantomime produced at Christmas.

[citation needed] At Christmas 1860 Payne played the title role in Bluebeard; or, Harlequin and Freedom in Her Island Home at the Covent Garden Theatre.