SHAKESPEARE STAR.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 261, 4 November 1933, Page 10 (Supplement)

SHAKESPEARE STAR.

EDWARD H. SOTHERN DEAD. One of the greatest figures of the American theatre passed away during the week in the person of Edward 11. Sothcrn, the famous Shakespearean actor who only lately sprang into the limelight when he presented £40,000 to the fund created for rebuilding the Stratford-on-Avon Theatre, after the destructive fire in the old Memorial Theatre. Son of E. A. Sothern, of "Lord Dundreary" fame, he was borne in New Orleans and educated in England. He first appeared on the stage in New York in 1879 with his father, playing two years later under Wyndham's management in London. His famous "Hamlet" was done in New York first in 1900. He starred in 1904 with Julia Marlowe, whom he later married, and who was at his death-bed. The play, appropriately enough, was "Romeo and Juliet." A number of Shakespeare plays followed, and at the end of 1905 the combination passed under the direction of Messrs. Shubert. , i

After a 24 years' absence Sothern made his reappearance oil the London stage in 1907. He then returned to America, where the combination was dissolved for a time, Sothern forming an independent company. In 1909 he again joined forces with Julia Marlowe in Shakespearean repertoire. He has written several plays. Sothern, who was the leading exponent in the United States of romantic legitimate drama and Shakespeare's plays, made a splendid gift on the poet's birthday anniversary in 1926 for the fund which was being raised to rebuild new Memorial Theatre. This took the form of costumes and properties and scenery for ten of Shakespeare's plays, their value being estimated at £40,000. i