Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/167

 FORREST

FORREST

"The Patrician's Daughter." Afterward she went to England, Australia and California, in the last i^lace assuming the management of one of the theatres. At Sacramento she plaj-ed Marco to Edwin Booth's Raphael in " The llarble Heart." At the close of the suit she lived in retirement in New York city where she died, June 16, 1891.

FORREST, Edwin, actor, was born in Phila- delphia, Pa., March 9, 1806; son of "WiUiam and Rebecca (Lauman) Forrest. He attended the public schools and at an early age showed his liking for the theatre. In company with his brother 'William he joined a juvenile Thespian club and assisted in theatrical perform- ances given in a wood-shed rudelj- fit- ted up for the i)ur- pose. At the age of eleven he made his first appearance at a regular theatre as Rosalia de Borgia in " Rudolph," at the old South Street theatre, Philadelphia. Upon the death of his father in 1819 his mother found it nec- essary to abandon her intention of educating Edwin for the min- istry and he was put at service, first with a printer, then with a cooper and finally with a sliip-chandler, but he took advantage of every opportunity of attending theatrical performances and of speaking in public. Early in his four- teenth year, while at a lecture upon the subject of nitrous-oxide, he was invited by the lecturer to become the medium of demon.stration and under the influence of the gas broke into a solil- oquy from "Richard." His rendering of the selection attracted the attention of John Swift, an eminent la\\^er, -who secured him an engage- ment at the Walnut Street theatre, where he made his formal debut, Xov. 27, 1820, as Young Norval in "Douglas." The play was repeated December 2 and on December 29 he took the jaart of Frederick in " Lovers' 'Vows," and at his own benefit, Jan. 6, 1821, he assumed the role of Oc- tavian in "The Mountaineers." Still retaining his ijlace in the shop, he devoted his spare hours to study iinder the advice and direction of friends and this year made his first and only venture as a manager, engaging the Prune Street theatre and giving a performance of " Richard III." After several attempts to secure an en- gagement he finally signed with Collins & Jones as utility man, at a .salary of eight dollars per

week, opening in October, 1823, at Pittsburg Pa., in the role of Young Norval. The company then proceeded to Maysville, Ky., and thence to Lexington. At Cincinnati, Oiiio, they opened at the old Columbia Street theatre on Jlarch 6, 1823, Forrest playing Yoimg Malfort in " The Soldier's Daughter." Before the close of the season the company broke up and Forrest with several associates formed a strolling band of players, but m a short time the scattered mem- bers of the company came together at the Globe theatre, Cincinnati, where on June 3, 1833, they opened with "Douglas,"' Forrest playing Young Norval. "While there he also played Sir Edward Jlortimer in "The Iron Chest," Octavian in "The Mountaineers," Jaffier in "Venice Pre- served,'' and Richard III., as well as several low-comedy parts. At this portion of his career he was the first actor to represent on the stage the southern plantation negro. He was next engaged by James H. Caldwell of the American theatre. New Orleans, at a salary of eighteen dollars per week, opening Feb. 4, 1824, as Jaffier. This engagement took him to Petersburg, Nor- folk and Richmond, Va., and then back to New Orleans, where he reopened, Jan. 3, 182.5, in the role of Young Malfort. In March he played lago and Malcolm to Conway's Othello and Macbeth. The season closed in May, during which month he gave his first impersonation of Brutus and played Carwin in John Howard Payne's drama " Therese." In August he se- cured a stock engagement at the Albany theatre, N.Y., during the season playing lago, Titus and Richmond to Edmund Kean's Othello, Brutus and Richard. His next engagement was at the Bowery theatre. New York city, then in the pro- cess of construction, where he was to play for one j^ear at a salary of twenty -eight dollars per week. During the interval before the opening of this theatre he made his first reappearance on the stage of his native city. May IC, 17 and 18, 1836, as Jaffier, and also appeared as Othello at the Park theatre. New York city. He opened at the Bowery theatre in November, 1826, as Othello. At the close of the first evening's per- formance his salary was raised to forty dollars and at the termination of liis contract he was re-engaged for eighty nights at two hundred dollars per night. He made his first appear- ance in Boston, Mass., on Feb. .'5, 1827, in the old Federal Street theatre in the character of Damon. In the autumn of 1829. collecting all the money he possessed, he paid the debts of his deceased father, bought a house in Philadelphia in the name of his mother and sisters and deposited in the bank to their account all he had remaining. Shortly after this, to encourage the development of an American dramatic literature, he offered a