Richard Mansfield Biography essays

Richard Mansfield Biography essays Richard Mansfield (1857-1907), American stage actor, was born in Berlin to soprano Erminia Rudersdorff Mansfield and her second husband, British wine merchant Maurice Mansfield. He was educated in England and studied painting but eventually drifted into acting, starting his stage career with a touring Comedy-Opera Company. Mansfield made his London stage debut in Offenbach's La Boulangere at the Globe in April 1881. (Stone, 2001). Following the death of his mother while on tour in the United States, he left for the US himself in 1882 where he became one of the leading romantic actors of the American theater and died prematurely in He made his New York Stage debut in a D'Oyly Carte production of Bucalossi's Les Manteaux Noirs the same year and continued to appear in light opera roles until he got his first big opportunity to play the Baron Chevrial in A Parisian Romance (1883). With the success of the play, Mansfield became an instant celebrity. He became his own manager and producer. Some of his notable stage productions include Beau Brummel (1890) and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1887). He was also responsible for introducing George Bernard Shaw and Henrik Ibsen to the American audience by producing and acting in their plays Shaw's Arms and the Man (1894) and Ibsen's Peer Gynt (1906). Mansfield's notable Shakespearean roles included Shylock, Richard III, Brutus, and Henry V. (Stone, 2001; Turney, n.d.) At the time of his death, The New York Times called him "the greatest actor of his hour, and one of the greatest of all times." (Quoted by Stone, 2001) His harshest critic, J.R.Towse, was slightly more ambivalent and perhaps closer to the truth when he observed: "Few actors could be more interesting and attractive than he when at his best, still fewer more exasperating when he was at his worst." (Quoted by Turney, n.d.) ...