William J. Florence
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| William Jermyn Conlin | |
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 a.k.a. William Jermyn Florence
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| Born | July 26, 1831 Albany, New York, United States |
| Died | November 19, 1891 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
William Jermyn Conlin (b July 26, 1831, Albany, N.Y., U.S. – d. Nov. 19, 1891, Philadelphia), better known by his stage name William J. Florence, was a U.S. actor, songwriter, and popular playwright. He was one of the most popular actors of his day. He never went by the name of Bernard Conlin as incorrectly published in various references. Florence was one of a select number of Americans to win the ribbon of the French Societe Histoire Dramatique. He was also co-founder of the Shriners, a Masonic Order along with Walter M. Fleming.
Born of Irish parents and reared on the Lower East Side of New York City, Florence worked at various jobs before becoming a call boy at the Old Bowery Theater. While working to support his widowed mother and her seven younger children, he rehearsed plays at night, and in 1850 he began to do dialect impersonations. In 1853 he married Malvina Pray, and thereafter the two generally appeared together on the stage — he usually as an Irishman and she as a Yankee.
William J. Conlin was very found of Florence, Italy, where he had an apartment for his abroad trips and used this name for his stage name, William J. Florence.
Florence’s first success was in A Row at the Lyceum (1851); following this, he established his reputation as Captain Cuttle in Dombey and Son, Bob Brierly in The Ticket-of-Leave Man, and Sir Lucius O’Trigger in The Rivals. His last appearance was with Joseph Jefferson, with whom he had maintained a successful partnership.
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[edit] Images as an Actor
[edit] Literature
- McKay and Wingate, Famous American Actors of To-Day (New York, 1896)
- Matthews and Hutton, Actors and Actresses of Great Britain and the United States (New York, 1886)
- Winter, The Wallet of Time (New York, 1913)
[edit] References
- Britanica, Micropedia Ready Reference, University of Chicago, Vol 4, p 839, 1988
- Gaylor Bronson Conlin, Sr., b. 1913, d. 10-17-2004
[edit] See also
- This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.
