Joseph Jefferson

Joseph Jefferson (February 20, 1829 - April 23, 1905) was an American actor. He was the third actor of this name in a family of actors and managers, and one of the most famous of all American comedians.

Jefferson was born in Philadelphia. His father was a scenic artist and actor and his mother an actress. He appeared onstage early in life, often being used when a play called for "a babe in arms". His first recorded appearance was at the Washington Theatre in Washington, D.C. where he appeared in a benefit performance for the minstrel Thomas D. Rice. It was there that the four year old Jefferson sang alternating stanzas in the song Jump Jim Crow.

Throughout his youth he experienced many of the hardships connected with theatrical touring in those early days. After this experience, partly as actor, partly as manager, he won his first pronounced success in 1858 as Asa Trenchard in Tom Taylor's Our American Cousin at Laura Keene's theatre in New York. This play was the turning-point of his career, as it would be for the actors E.H. Sothern and his wife, Virginia Harned. The naturalness and spontaneity of humour with which he acted the love scenes revealed a spirit in comedy new to his contemporaries, long used to a more artificial convention; and the touch of pathos which the part required revealed no less to the actor an unexpected power in himself.

Other early parts included Newman Noggs in Nicholas Nickleby, Caleb Plummer in The Cricket on the Hearth, Dr. Pangloss in The Heir at Law, Salem Scudder in The Octoroon, and Bob Acres in The Rivals, the last being not so much an interpretation of the character as Sheridan sketched it as a creation of the actors.

In 1859, Jefferson made a dramatic version of the story of Rip Van Winkle on the basis of older plays, and acted it with success in Washington. The play was given its permanent form by Dion Boucicault in London,where 1865 it ran 170 nights, with Jefferson in the leading part. Jefferson would continue acting in this show for 40 years. Jefferson also starred in a number of films as the character starting in 1896, the earliest of which is in the US National Film Registry. Jefferson’s son Thomas followed in his father’s footsteps and also played the character in a number of early 20th century films.

Jefferson continued to act with undiminished popularity in a limited number of parts in nearly every town in the United States, his Rip Van Winkle, Bob Acres, and Caleb Plummer being the most popular. He was one of the first to establish the travelling combinations which superseded the old system of local stock companies.

With the exception of minor parts, such as the First Gravedigger in Hamlet, which he played in an all star combination headed by Edwin Booth, Jefferson created no new character after 1865; and the success of Rip Van Winkle was so pronounced that he has often been called a one-part actor. If this was a fault, it was the public's, who never wearied of his one masterpiece.

Jefferson died on April 23, 1905 in Palm Beach, Florida.

No man in his profession was more honored for his achievements or his character. He was the friend of many of the leading men in American politics, art and literature. He was an ardent fisherman and lover of nature, and devoted to painting. Jefferson was twice married: to an actress, Margaret Clements Lockyer (1832-1861), in 1850, and in 1867 to Sarah Warren, niece of William Warren the actor.

It has been said that he was a distant cousin to British comedian Stan Laurel.

The original version of this article is taken from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

External links

• Joseph Jefferson Filmography (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0420198/)
• Joseph Jefferson Writing on Acting (http://www.classicaltheatre.com/id55.htm)