IRA FREDERICK ALDRIDGE Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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IRA FREDERICK ALDRIDGE

Name: Ira Frederick Aldridge                                                                   
Born: 24 July 1807                                                                             
Died: 7 August 1867                                                                           
                                                                                               
Ira Frederick Aldridge (July 24, 1807 New York City – 7 August 1867 Łódź) was an         
American stage actor who made his career largely on the London stage. He is the               
only actor of African American descent among the 33 actors of the English stage               
with bronze plaques at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon.               
                                                                                               
Born in New York City to Reverend Daniel and Luranah Aldridge July 24, 1807,                   
Aldridge went to the African Free School in New York City. His early "education"               
in theater included viewing plays from the high balcony of the Park Theatre, New               
York's leading theater of the time.                                                           
                                                                                               
Aldridge's first professional acting experience was in the early 1820s with the               
company associated with the African Grove, where he debuted as Rolla in Pizzaro;               
he went on to play Shakespeare's Romeo and later became a rather famous Hamlet.               
                                                                                               
Charles Mathews famously imitated and parodied the African Grove's star James                 
Hewlett performing Hamlet in a performance Mathews called "The African                         
Tragedian" (part of a larger worked titled "A Trip To America"). Aldridge would               
later gain fame by claiming to be "The African Tragedian" on whom the                         
performance was based. According to Bernth Lindfors, professor of English                     
and African literatures at the University of Texas, Mathews went to the African               
Theater and invited Hewlett do a private performance for him, and then invented               
a story about a black actor butchering Shakespeare. In Mathews' parody, Hewlett               
spoke the line "…and by opposing end them…" as "…and by opposum end them…",           
leading to a rendition of "Opossum up a Gum Tree", the de facto anthem of                     
African Americans at the time. Aldridge denied that this had actually occurred                 
during his performances at the African Grove; according to Eric Lott, he                       
actually borrowed the joke back from Mathews at a later date and made exactly                 
that transition from Hamlet to the popular song.                                               
                                                                                               
Confronted with the persistent disparagement and harassment that black actors                 
had to endure in the United States, Aldridge emigrated to England, where he                   
became a dresser to the British actor Henry Wallack. According to Shane White,                 
author of the book "Stories of Freedom in Black New York," the only American                   
stage anyone in England had ever heard of at this time was the stage that                     
Mathews had performed, and Aldridge associated himself with that. Bernth                       
Lindfors says "when Aldridge starts appearing on the stage at the Royalty                     
Theatre, he’s just called a gentleman of color. But when he moves over to the               
Royal Coburg, he’s advertised in the first playbill as the American Tragedian               
from the African Theater New York City. The second playbill refers to him as 'The             
African Tragedian.' So everybody goes to the theater expecting to laugh because               
this is the man they think Mathews saw in New York City." Instead Aldridge                     
performed scenes from Othello that stunned reviewers. According to a monograph                 
written by Herbert Marshall at Southern Illinois University, one critic wrote "In             
Othello (Aldridge) delivers the most difficult passages with a degree of                       
correctness that surprises the beholder." He gradually progressed to larger                   
roles; by 1825, he had top billing at London's Coburg Theatre as Oronoko in A                 
Slave's Revenge, soon to be followed by the role of Gambia in The Slave and the               
title role of Shakespeare's Othello. He also played major roles in plays such as               
The Castle Spectre and The Padlock and played several roles of specifically                   
white characters, including Captain Dirk Hatteraick and Bertram in Rev. R. C.                 
Maturin's Bertram, the title role in Shakespeare's Richard III, and Shylock in                 
The Merchant of Venice.                                                                       
                                                                                               
In 1825, he had married an English woman named Margaret Gill, and earned the                   
cognomen the "African Roscius". In 1831 he successfully played in Dublin,                     
several locations in southern Ireland, Bath, and Edinburgh. Edmund Kean praised               
his Othello; some took him to task for taking liberties with the text, while                   
others attacked his race.                                                                     
                                                                                               
He first toured to continental Europe in 1852, with successes in Germany (where               
he was presented to the Duchess Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and performed for Frederick                 
William IV of Prussia) and in Budapest. An 1858 tour took him to Serbia and to                 
Imperial Russia, where he became acquainted with Leo Tolstoy. He mastered                     
Russian well enough to perform roles in that language.                                         
                                                                                               
Now of an appropriate age, he played (in England) the title role of King Lear                 
for the first time. He purchased some property in England, toured Russia again (1862),         
and applied for British citizenship (1863). His wife Margaret died in 1864; on                 
April 20, 1865, he married his former mistress, the self-styled Swedish countess               
Amanda von Brandt, with whom he already had a child, Ira Daniel. They had four                 
more children: Irene Luranah, Ira Frederick, Amanda, all of whom would go on to               
musical careers; and Rachael, who was born shortly after Aldridge's death and                 
who died in infancy.                                                                           
                                                                                               
Aldridge spent most of his final years in Russia and continental Europe,                       
interspersed with occasional visits to England. A planned return to the post-Civil-War         
United States was prevented by his death in August 1867 while visiting Łódź,               
Poland. His remains were buried in the city's Evangelical Cemetery; 23 years                   
passed before a proper tombstone was erected. His grave is tended by the Society               
of Polish Artists of Film and Theatre.