James William Wallack
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
-American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
and manager
Actor-manager
An actor-manager is a leading actor who sets up their own permanent theatrical company and manages the company's business and financial arrangements, sometimes taking over the management of a theatre, to perform plays of their own choice and in which they will usually star...
, born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, and brother of Henry John Wallack
Henry John Wallack
Henry John Wallack was a British-American actor, stage manager, and brother of actor James William Wallack.Wallack was born in London. Wallack's parents were comedians, who performed at the London minor playhouses and in the British provinces.He worked in the United States about 1821, and appeared...
.
Wallack's parents were comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
s, who performed at the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
minor playhouses and in the British provinces. His first appearance on the stage was as a child at the Surrey Theatre
Surrey Theatre
The Surrey Theatre began life in 1782 as the Royal Circus and Equestrian Philharmonic Academy, one of the many circuses that provided contemporary London entertainment of both horsemanship and drama...
in London. Soon afterward he performed in juvenile characters at Drury Lane
Drury Lane
Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....
, and at the age of eighteen entered on a permanent career at the same house as Laertes in Hamlet. He also acted in the British provinces and in Ireland, gradually winning his way to popularity as a useful representative of drama and comedy. In 1824 Wallack became stage manager at Drury Lane, and rose to the performance of secondary roles in tragedy. Later he played at the Haymarket Theatre
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...
, and officiated as stage manager at the Princess's Theatre.
On the occasion of his first visit to the United States, in 1818, he played Macbeth at the Park Theatre
Park Theatre (Manhattan)
The Park Theatre, originally known as the New Theatre, was a playhouse in New York City, located at 21, 23, and 25 Park Row, about east of Ann Street and backing Theatre Alley. The location, at the north end of the city, overlooked the park that would soon house City Hall...
, New York. He also played Romeo, Shylock, Coriolanus, Hamlet, and Richard III, all without making any favorable impression. But in the principal roles in The Stranger, Pizarro and The Gamester he closely copied the manner of Kemble
Charles Kemble
Charles Kemble was a British actor.-Life:The youngest son of Roger Kemble, and younger brother of John Philip Kemble, Stephen Kemble and Sarah Siddons, he was born at Brecon, South Wales. Like John Philip, he was educated at Douai...
and attracted favorable consideration. From 1818 until 1845 Wallack performed at intervals in all the principal cities of the United States. Among his roles were the chief characters in The Brigand, The Rent-Day, The Wonder, Don Cassar de Bazan, Wild Oats and the refined comedy parts of Mercutio, Jaques, and Benedick. Love's Ritornello, as sung by him in The Brigand, was hummed from one end of the country to the other.
In 1822 Wallack met with an accident, in which his leg was fractured by the overturning of a stagecoach between New York and Philadelphia. This mishap retired him from active life for about eighteen months, and from its effect he never entirely recovered. From 1837 until its destruction by fire, Wallack conducted the New York National Theatre. There he presented a repertory of the best plays in the English language, rendered by a company such as never before had been seen in this country.
He settled permanently in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in 1852. In that year, he assumed management of Wallack's Lyceum, renamed from an old theatre at the corner of Broome Street and Broadway. In 1861 he built Wallack's Theatre
Wallack's Theatre
Wallack’s Theatre , located on 254 West 42nd Street in New York, United States, was opened on December 5, 1904 by Oscar Hammerstein I. Wallack’s was Hammerstein’s 8th production theatre and was originally known as the "Lew Fields'", a name that Hammerstein gave it in recognition of his favourite...
at 13th Street and Broadway
Broadway (New York City)
Broadway is a prominent avenue in New York City, United States, which runs through the full length of the borough of Manhattan and continues northward through the Bronx borough before terminating in Westchester County, New York. It is the oldest north–south main thoroughfare in the city, dating to...
. His son
John Lester Wallack
John Lester Wallack , was an American actor and son of James William Wallack....
opened the third Wallack's Theatre in 1882.
Wallack was an actor of the old school. Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray
William Makepeace Thackeray was an English novelist of the 19th century. He was famous for his satirical works, particularly Vanity Fair, a panoramic portrait of English society.-Biography:...
praised his performance as Shylock
Shylock
Shylock is a fictional character in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.-In the play:In The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is a Jewish moneylender who lends money to his Christian rival, Antonio, setting the security at a pound of Antonio's flesh...
, and Joseph Jefferson
Joseph Jefferson
Joseph Jefferson, commonly known as Joe Jefferson , was an American actor. He was the third actor of this name in a family of actors and managers, and one of the most famous of all American comedians....
his Don Caesar de Bazan. As a performer he was endowed with a fine personality; his voice was highly melodious, set off by flexibility and careful elocution, and his knowledge of stage-effect was unexcelled. In refined and eccentric comedy Wallack had few superiors. Some of his roles in the romantic dramas of his own creation were entirely unequalled, and have died with him.
He married the daughter of John Henry Johnstone (1749–1828), a popular tenor and stage Irishman; she died in 1851. Their son, John Lester Wallack
John Lester Wallack
John Lester Wallack , was an American actor and son of James William Wallack....
was also a famous actor.
Literature
- A Sketch of the Life of James William Wallack, Late Actor and Manager (New York, 1865)
- Lester WallackJohn Lester WallackJohn Lester Wallack , was an American actor and son of James William Wallack....
, Memories of Fifty Years (New York, 1889) - William WinterWilliam Winter (author)William Winter was an American dramatic critic and author.-Biography:Born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Winter graduated from Harvard Law School in 1857...
, The Wallet of TimeThe Wallet of TimeProduced in 1913, The Wallet of Time is a publication by William Winter, in two volumes. Its title is taken from the words of William Shakespeare: "Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back, Wherein he puts alms for oblivion,..." American stage actors and actresses, most of whom had been born in...
, volume i. (New York, 1913)