Charles Walter Couldock (26 April 1815 – 27 November 1898) was a popular 19th-century English actor.

History

Born in Long Acre, England, he made his stage debut in Shakespeare's Othello at London's

Sadler's Wells Theatre Sadler's Wells Theatre is a performing arts venue in Clerkenwell, London, England located on Rosebery Avenue next to New River Head. The present-day theatre is the sixth on the site since 1683. It consists of two performance spaces: a 1,500-seat ...

in 1835."Prominent Persons. A Veteran Actor."
''Pacific Commercial Advertiser'', Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, 7 February 1985. Page 3. Retrieved 10 May 2021. He was a part of traveling and stock companies in England before obtaining more stable positions in Birmingham and Liverpool in 1845. Actress

Charlotte Cushman Charlotte Saunders Cushman (July 23, 1816 – February 18, 1876) was an American stage actress. Her voice was noted for its full contralto register, and she was able to play both male and female parts. She lived intermittently in Rome, in an expa ...

enticed Couldock to travel to the United States in 1849, where he made a successful American debut on 8 October 1849 in ''The Stranger''. He played in the stock company of Philadelphia's Walnut Street Theatre from 1850 to 1855. Among roles he first played during this period was that of Luke Fielding in '' The Willow Copse'', a role he later reprised many times. In 1858 he joined the company of

Laura Keene Laura Keene (20 July 1826 – 4 November 1873) was a British stage actress and theatre manager. In her twenty-year career, she became known as the first powerful female manager in New York. She is most famous for being the lead actress in ...

, where he appeared in the first American production of ''

Our American Cousin ''Our American Cousin'' is a three-act play by English playwright Tom Taylor. It is a farce featuring awkward, boorish American Asa Trenchard, who is introduced to his aristocratic English relatives when he goes to England to claim the family e ...

''. His best known role was as Dunstan Kirke in ''

Hazel Kirke ''Hazel Kirke'' is a play in four acts written by American actor and dramatist Steele MacKaye. Overview The play was written between 1878 and 1879 in the town of Dublin, New Hampshire.Quinn, p. 497 MacKaye meant it to be expressly for New York ...

'', a huge success of its time, which debuted in New York in February 1880 and ran for 486 consecutive performances, and also traveled broadly. Couldock may have acted the role over 1,500 times. ''

American National Biography The ''American National Biography'' (ANB) is a 24-volume biographical encyclopedia set that contains about 17,400 entries and 20 million words, first published in 1999 by Oxford University Press under the auspices of the American Council of Le ...

'' (1999) describes Couldock as being of "the old-school sentimental style of acting which required great emotive power and a command of the sweeping gesture" and at his best "in maudlin domestic pieces" where "he gave convincing life to a gallery of uniquely American stage characters." ''ANB'' also notes that while "recognized as an important theatrical figure both in his own time and in ours, Couldock has not received sustained scholarly attention from historians ...." Morris, Clara
Life on the Stage: My Personal Experiences and Recollections
pp. 129-138 (1901) (chapter of stories about Couldock by actress

Clara Morris Clara Morris (1846-9 – November 20, 1925) was an American actress. Early life Actress Clara Morris was born in Toronto, the eldest child of a bigamous marriage. Sources disagree on the year of her birth, writing it as any of the years from 18 ...

) ''

Harper's Weekly ''Harper's Weekly, A Journal of Civilization'' was an American political magazine based in New York City. Published by Harper & Brothers from 1857 until 1916, it featured foreign and domestic news, fiction, essays on many subjects, and humor, ...

'' noted Couldock's broad popularity in 1895: "If there is any adult American who does not know Charles Couldock, it must be a resident of some very remote place, or a person reared with more than ordinary success in the belief that play-going is a sinful pastime."(25 May 1895)
This Busy World
''

'' p. 497 Couldock acted well into the 1890s,(22 November 1896)
"Couldock Leaves the Stage"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' (alleged 1896 retirement from the stage; but the next day he reported he had not retired)(23 November 1896)
"Couldock has not retired"
''

''(12 May 1895)
"Couldock's Long Career"
''

'' and died at his home in New York City in November 1898.(28 November 1898)
"Charles W. Couldock Dead"
''

'' He was buried in the

Actors Fund The Entertainment Community Fund, formerly The Actors Fund, is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that supports performers and behind-the-scenes workers in performing arts and entertainment, helping more than 17,000 people directly each year. Ser ...

plot at the

Cemetery of the Evergreens The Cemetery of the Evergreens, also called Evergreen Cemetery, is a non-denominational rural cemetery along the Cemetery Belt in Brooklyn and Queens, New York. It was incorporated in 1849, not long after the passage of New York's Rural Cemetery ...

Personal

Couldock married Louisa Smith while still in England, and they remained married until her death in 1877. Their daughter Eliza was an actress who died in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

at age 27.''Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia and Register of Important Events''
p. 52 (1899)Whitney, Horace G
''The Story of the Salt Lake Theatre''
pp. 19-20 (1915)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Couldock, Charles Walter 1815 births 1898 deaths 19th-century English male actors English male stage actors Burials at the Cemetery of the Evergreens