Francis Wilson (actor)
| Francis Wilson | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
February 7, 1854 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Died | October 7, 1935 (aged 81) |
| Occupation | Stage actor, Producer, Writer |
| Spouse(s) | (1)Mira Barrie, (2)Edna Bruns |
Francis Wilson (February 2, 1854 – October 7, 1935) was an American actor, born in Philadelphia.
He began his career in a minstrel show with Haverly's United Mastodon Minstrels, but by 1878 was playing at the Chestnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, and the next year appeared in M'liss with Annie Pixley. After several years in regular comedy, he took up some comic opera, appearing with the McCaull Comic Opera Company and making a great success in Erminie (1886). In 1889, leaving New York's Casino Theatre, he made his appearance as a star in The Oolah. Plays in which he starred subsequently include: The Merry Monarch (1890); The Lion Tamer (1891); The Little Corporal (1898); "The Little Father of the Wilderness" (1905); The Bachelor's Baby (1909), written by himself. He also appeared in several productions of Rip Van Winkle. He formed his own theater company 1899. He was the author of Joseph Jefferson: Reminiscences of a Fellow Player (1906), The Eugene Field I Knew (1898), "Francis Wilson's Life of Himself" Houghton Mifflin Company(1924), "John Wilkes Booth, Fact and Fiction of Lincoln's Assassination", Houghton Mifflin Company (1929), a book written with information from his close friend Edwin Booth, and several plays of which The Bachelor's Baby was the most successful. Francis Wilson was the founding president of Actors Equity, 1913-1920.
Wilson's first wife was Mira Barrie with whom he had two daughters. After her death he married Edna Bruns(1879-1960) with whom he had a son and daughter.
Francis Wilson Playhouse is the successor to the Clearwater Players, organized in 1930 as a community theater which presented productions in ad hoc venues around Clearwater, Florida for several years. In 1935, the first president of Actors Equity, Francis Wilson, a winter resident in Clearwater, convinced a friend, Mary Curtis Bok (later Zimbalist,) to contribute $5,000 for the construction of a permanent home for the Clearwater Players.
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