Edward Hugh Sothern

Edward Hugh Sothern (December 6, 1859 – October 28, 1933) was an American actor who specialized in dashing, romantic leading roles and particularly in Shakespeare roles.

Sothern was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of English actor E. A. Sothern and his wife Frances Emily "Fannie" Stewart (d. 1882). Sothern was educated in England at St Marylebone Grammar School. His brothers and sister all became actors: Lytton Edward Sothern (1851–1887); George Evelyn Augustus T. Sothern (1864–1920), who used the stage name Sam Sothern; and Eva Mary Sothern.

Sothern's father had encouraged pursuits other than the stage, but Sothern had already caught the acting bug. His first professional acting appearance was in 1879 as the cabman in an American revival of Brother Sam, a show written by John Oxenford in 1862 for his father, and in which his father played the lead. After playing in Boston and touring in the U.S., he sailed for England, making his London debut in 1881 on a double bill as Mr. Sharpe in False Colours and Marshley Bittern in Out of the Hunt. The next year, he played Arthur Spoonbill in Fourteen Days and then toured in Britain with Charles Wyndham's company.

In 1883, he returned to the U.S. and toured first with John Edward McCullough and then Helen Barry. Back in New York, in 1884, he played Eliphaz Tresham in The Fatal Letter, Melchizidec Flighty in Whose Are They?, which he wrote himself, and in Nita's First. The next year, he was Alfred Vane in Favette, Knolly in Mona, John in In Chancery and Jules in A Moral Climate. He was hired by Charles and Daniel Frohman in the stock company of the old Lyceum Theatre in New York, where he starred as a leading man for the next twelve years. He made a hit as the lovesick auctioneer in the romantic comedy The Highest Bidder (1887). He was especially known for his heroic portrayal of Rudolph Rassendyl in the first stage adaptation of The Prisoner of Zenda, by Anthony Hope, which he first played in 1895. The role made him a star. In 1896, Sothern married actress Virginia Harned.

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