Boucicault, Dion

1820

1890

Dion Boucicault was an Irish playwright and actor. His mother Anne Maria was the sister of writer George Darley. His natural father was probably the encyclopaedist Dionysius Lardner, who was lodging with Boucicault’s family at the time of his birth. In 1838, Boucicault made his acting début at the Theatre Royal, Cheltenham under the pseudonym of Lee Moreton, and before the age of twenty, had cajoled theatre managers in Brighton, Bristol, and Hull into staging his early work. He eventually also persuaded theatre managers in London to do the same. He worked with Madame Vestris, William Macready, Charles Kean and Benjamin Webster. In 1844 Boucicault moved to Paris and in 1845 married the widowed Anne Guiot, whom however by the summer of 1848 had passed away. In 1859 Boucicault returned to London and married Agnes Kelly Robertson, Charles Kean adopted daughter. The love relationship caused a rupture between Boucicault and Kean and the young couple moved to America. Agnes was an actress of unusual ability and she is considered the foundation to their oversea success. The couple eventually returned to Britain where Boucicault began managing as well as acting and writing plays. He was now working at the Adelphi as well as the Princess’ Theatre and at Drury Lane. He was financing theatres and shows, hiring companies and touring oversea. His marriage to Agnes was not going well though and, after several affairs, Boucicault married, in 1885, the young actress Louise Thorndyke, then only twenty-one. His previous marriage had however not been legally dissolved and so Boucicault was accused of bigamy and had to sell the rights to many of his plays to finance alimony payments to Agnes. He died in New York, where he had taken on the management of an acting academy at the Madison Square Theatres. About 150 plays are credited to Dion Boucicault, who was a member of the Garrick Club from 1882.

See ODNB http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2976?docPos=1 and The Encyclopaedia Brittannica http://www.britannica.com/biography/Dion-Boucicault