John C. Rice (April 7, 1857,

Sullivan County, New York Sullivan County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 78,624. The county seat is Monticello. The county's name honors Major General John Sullivan, who was labeled at the time as a hero in the Am ...

– June 5, 1915,

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

) was an American born

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

stage actor and vaudevillian who is credited with performing the first onscreen

kiss A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

with

May Irwin May Irwin (born Georgina May Campbell; June 27, 1862 – October 22, 1938) was an actress, singer and star of vaudeville. Originally from Canada, she and her sister Flo Irwin found theater work after their father died. She was known for her per ...

in 1896 for the

Thomas Edison Thomas Alva Edison (February 11, 1847October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices in fields such as electric power generation, mass communication, sound recording, and motion pictures. These inventio ...

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

company film '' The Kiss''. The film was a 47-second recreation of a scene from the Broadway play ''

The Widow Jones ''The Widow Jones'' was an 1895 New York City stage musical comedy. Thomas Edison hired the play's stars, May Irwin and John Rice, to recreate the kiss seen in act 1 of the play for the 1896 short film, '' The Kiss'', made in Edison's Kinetoscop ...

'' starring Irwin and Rice. Rice's Broadway credits included ''Vivian's Papas'' (1903), ''Are You a Mason?'' (1901), ''Courted Into Court'' (1897), and ''The Widow Jones'' (1895). Rice also performed in vaudeville, including teaming with Sally Cohen to present the sketch "Our Honeymoon" at Keith's Theater in Boston in 1898. In 1907, they performed the skit "A Bachelor's Wife" at Chase's in Washington, D. C.

References

External links

* *
Victorian era portrait of young John C. Rice
(North American Theatre Online, alexanderstreet) 1857 births 1915 deaths American male stage actors American male film actors 20th-century American male actors Broadway theatre people Vaudeville performers {{US-film-actor-1850s-stub