Neil Burgess (1846/51–1910) was an American

vaudevillian Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment born in France at the end of the 19th century. A vaudeville was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a dramatic composition ...

comedian who specialized in female impersonation of elderly "widders".

Biography

Neil Burgess was born in Boston in 1846/51.Bordman, Gerald and Thomas S. Hischak
''The Oxford Companion to American Theatre''
New York: Oxford University Press, 2004: 221. He started his unusual career at age 19 when called on to fill in for an ailing actress in ''The Quiet Family'' in

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

. Burgess debuted in New York as a solo artist in 1872 under producer

Tony Pastor Antonio Pastor (May 28, 1837 – August 26, 1908) was an American impresario, variety performer and theatre owner who became one of the founding forces behind American vaudeville in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. He was sometimes referr ...

, when he was billed as an "Ethiopian Comedian". His first role as a female impersonator came in 1877 in ''The Coming Woman'' for the Theatre Comique of

Edward Harrigan Edward Harrigan (October 26, 1844June 6, 1911), sometimes called Ned Harrigan, was an Irish-American actor, singer, dancer, playwright, lyricist and theater producer who, together with Tony Hart (theater), Tony Hart (as Harrigan & Hart), formed o ...

and

Tony Hart Norman Antony Hart (15 October 1925 – 18 January 2009),Debrett's People of Today 2008, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 2007. known professionally as Tony Hart, was an English artist best known for his work in educating children in art through his role ...

. He was soon recognized as one of the leading female impersonators, successively playing women's parts in vaudeville. By the 1880s, he took several such roles in ''The Widow and the Elder'', ''Betsey Bobbet: A Drama'' (later renamed ''Vim''), and the ''County Fair''. His greatest success was ''Widow Bedott'' in 1879. He also produced and starred as Auntie Abigail Prue in Charles Barnard's play ''The County Fair'' in 1889. George C. Odell later reflected on these roles: "I still see him as Widow Bedott in the kitchen, making pies, straightening out the affairs of the neighborhood and personifying, in spite of his

sex Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones (ova, oft ...

, the attributes of a managing woman. He was not the least bit effeminate, not at all like the usual female impersonator of minstrelsy or of variety, and yet he was Widow Bedott to the life, and with little suggestion of burlesque."Morris, Linda A
''Gender Play in Mark Twain: Cross-Dressing and Transgression''
Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2007: 5–6 Burgess was also interested in inventions tied to the stage and backed a turntable device that allowed horses to run at full speed on stage, and another device that simulated the sound of a large crowd. He was married to actress Mary Stoddard. She died in 1905. He died at his home in New York City on February 19, 1910.

Notes

References

19th-century births 1910 deaths 19th-century American male actors American male stage actors American drag queens Male actors from Boston Vaudeville performers {{US-theat-actor-1840s-stub