Henry James William Finn (June 17, 1787 – January 13, 1840) was a Canadian-American actor and author.

Biography

Finn was born in

Sydney, Nova Scotia Sydney is a former city and urban community on the east coast of Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia, Canada within the Cape Breton Regional Municipality. Sydney was founded in 1785 by the British, was incorporated as a city in 1904, and dissolv ...

. He went to England in his youth, on the invitation of a rich uncle residing there, who died without making any provision for him, and he was obliged to resort to the stage for a support. After a few years he returned to New York City, subsequently revisited England, and in 1822 made his first appearance at the Federal Street Theatre in Boston. He was one of the most popular actors on the stage, his forte being broad comedy. He perished in the conflagration of the steamboat ''Lexington''. He accumulated a competency, and was on his way to his residence in Newport, Rhode Island, at the time of his death.

Works

He enjoyed a considerable reputation as a humorous writer, and published a ''Comic Annual'' and a number of articles in the periodicals. He published a drama entitled "Montgomery, or the Falls of Montmorenci," which was acted with success, and he left besides a manuscript tragedy.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Finn, Henry J. 1787 births 1840 deaths American male stage actors American humorists American male dramatists and playwrights Emigrants from pre-Confederation Nova Scotia to the United States Colony of Nova Scotia people 19th-century American dramatists and playwrights 19th-century American male writers People from Sydney, Nova Scotia