Eddie Foy Sr.
| Eddie Foy Sr. | |
|---|---|
(1912)
|
|
| Born |
Edwin Fitzgerald March 9, 1856 Manhattan, New York City, USA |
| Died | February 16, 1928 (aged 71) Kansas City, Missouri, USA |
| Nationality | Irish-American |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Spouse(s) | Rose Howland (1879–1882) Lola Sefton (1882–1894) Madeline Morando (1896–1918) Marie Reilly Coombs (1923–1928) |
| Children |
Bryan Foy 1896-1977 Charley Foy 1898-1984 Mary Foy 1901-1987 Madeline Foy 1903-1988 Eddie Foy Jr. 1905–1983 Richard Foy 1905–1947 Irving Foy 1908-2003 |
Edwin Fitzgerald (March 9, 1856 – February 16, 1928), known professionally as Eddie Foy and Eddie Foy Sr., was an American actor, comedian, dancer and vaudevillian.
Foy's parents, Richard and Mary Fitzgerald, emigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1855 and lived first in New York City's Bowery and then in Greenwich Village neighborhoods, where Eddie was born. Richard Fitzgerald died in an insane asylum in 1862 from syphilis-induced dementia, and his widow took her four children (Eddie was second oldest) to Chicago, where she reportedly at one time tended the mentally ill widow of Abraham Lincoln.
Six-year-old Eddie began performing in the streets and local saloons to support his family. At 15 he changed his name to Foy, and with a partner began dancing in bars, traveling throughout the western United States. He worked for a time as a supernumerary in theatrical productions, sharing a stage at times with such leading men of the time as Edwin Booth and Joseph Jefferson. With another partner, Jim Thompson, Foy went west again and gained his first professional recognition in mining camps and cow towns. In one such town, Dodge City, Kansas, Foy and his partner lingered for some time and Foy became acquainted with notable citizens Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and Doc Holliday. In later years, Foy told of an altercation over a girl with fellow actor Charles Chaplin (not the later film star), who was drunkenly taking pot-shots at Foy. The gunfire awakened Wyatt Earp, who disarmed the actor and sent both the players home to sleep it off. Foy is also rumored to have been in Tombstone, Arizona, in October 1881, appearing at the Birdcage Theater when the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral occurred on the 26th of that month.
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