James A. Herne - Wikipedia James A. Herne From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia   (Redirected from James Herne) Jump to navigation Jump to search James A. Herne James Ahearn Born (1839-02-01)February 1, 1839 Cohoes, New York Died June 2, 1901(1901-06-02) (aged 62) Manhattan, New York City Children Chrystal Herne Julie Herne James A. Herne (born James Ahearn, February 1, 1839 – June 2, 1901) was an American playwright and actor.[1] He is considered by some critics to be the "American Ibsen", and his controversial play Margaret Fleming is often credited with having begun modern drama in America. Herne was a Georgist and wrote Shore Acres to promote the political economy of Henry George.[2] Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Stage actor 1.2 Playwright 2 Death 3 Footnotes 4 Works 5 Further reading 6 External links Biography[edit] Stage actor[edit] James A. Herne was born February 1, 1839, in Cohoes, New York.[1] His parents were poor Irish immigrants who removed him from school at age thirteen to work in a brush factory. Herne decided to become an actor the next year but was twenty before he could join a traveling troupe. He made his debut in 1859 as George in a production of Uncle Tom's Cabin in Troy, New York. He enjoyed modest success as a young actor, appearing in Baltimore and Washington, D.C. with the John Thompson Ford company in the early 1860s. He was the leading man for the Lucille Western Touring Company from 1865 to 1867. He was briefly married, in the early 1860s, to Lucille's sister Helen Western, an actress who later became romantically involved with John Wilkes Booth. Herne managed the Grand Opera House at 23rd and 8th Avenue in New York City for a season. Herne and his wife Katherine Corcoran He then moved to San Francisco in 1870 to manage several other theaters. In San Francisco, he met David Belasco, with whom he collaborated on at least three of his plays. He also met and married his second wife, actress Katherine Corcoran. The couple had five children, one son, John, and four daughters, Alma, Dorothy, Julie and Katherine Chrystal who usually went by the name Chrystal Herne. Dorothy and Julie were also actresses. Playwright[edit] Herne was the first American playwright to incorporate dramatic realism. He ventured away from nineteenth century dramatic romance and melodrama. Much of Herne's work faded into obscurity in the twentieth century. However, he exerted a profound influence, directing American dramatic literature toward the depiction of complex socially realities. This was illustrated in his controversial play Margaret Fleming (1890). The work singled him out as an influential figure in 19th-century drama. Herne's first successful play, Hearts of Oak, was written and produced with Belasco in 1879. After this, Herne focused mostly on writing. Of his later plays, only a handful saw financial success in his lifetime. He continued to act, often in his own works, but also in the plays of others. In 1897 Herne played Nathaniel Berry in Shore Acres at the Harlem Opera House. It was the sixth consecutive season that he portrayed this character. Death[edit] James A. Herne died at his home, 79 Convent Avenue, in Manhattan, New York City on June 2, 1901, at 5:00 pm of pneumonia. He was first sickened two months earlier in Chicago, where he was appearing in his production Sag Harbor.[1][3] Footnotes[edit] ^ a b c "Death Of James A. Herne. Actor and Playwright Succumbs to Attack of Pneumonia. Had Occupied First Place as an Interpreter of Homely Folk-Life. On the Stage 35 Years". New York Times. June 3, 1901. ^ Aller, Pat. "The Georgist Philosophy in Culture and History". Retrieved 2 October 2014. ^ "Funeral Of James A. Herne. The Obsequies Were Simple in Deference to the Wish of the Dead Actor". New York Times. June 5, 1901. Works[edit] Within an Inch of his Life with David Belasco 1879 Marriage by Moonlight with David Belasco 1879 Hearts of Oak with David Belasco 1879 from "The Mariner's Compass" by Henry Leslie The Minute Men 1886 Drifting Apart 1888 Margaret Fleming 1890 Shore Acres 1893 Art for Truth's Sake (essay) 1897 The Reverend Griffith Davenport 1899 Sag Harbor 1900 Further reading[edit] Arthur Hobson Quinn, The Early Plays of James A. Herne. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1940. "James Ahearn Herne," Literature Resource Center. "Theaters," New York Times, October 10, 1897, pg. 5. External links[edit] Wikimedia Commons has media related to James A. Herne. James Herne biography with photo James A. Herne on IMDb Authority control GND: 118774190 ISNI: 0000 0000 8392 1016 LCCN: n82037583 NKC: xx0244233 NTA: 131720074 SNAC: w64q88fg VIAF: 69725347 WorldCat Identities: lccn-n82037583 Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_A._Herne&oldid=992742782" Categories: 1839 births 1901 deaths People from Cohoes, New York American people of Irish descent Writers from New York (state) 19th-century American male actors American male stage actors Vaudeville performers Male actors from New York (state) 19th-century American dramatists and playwrights Hidden categories: CS1: Julian–Gregorian uncertainty Articles with hCards Commons category link from Wikidata Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with NKC identifiers Wikipedia articles with NTA identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Wikisource Languages Afrikaans Français Italiano مصرى Edit links This page was last edited on 6 December 2020, at 21:34 (UTC). 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