William Rufus Blake

William Rufus Blake (1805 – 22 April 1863) was a Canadian stage actor.

[1] When only seventeen years old he went on the stage at Halifax, N. S., taking the part of the Prince of Wales, in Richard III with a company of strolling players.

His first appearance in New York was in 1824, at the old Chatham Theatre, as Frederick, in The Poor Gentleman, and in The Three Singles.

While playing at the Tremont Theatre, Boston, in 1827, he received the first call before the curtain ever given to an actor in this country.

On 21 April 1863, while playing Sir Peter Teazle in The School for Scandal in the Boston Theatre he was suddenly taken ill, and died the next day.