Sarah West (actress)
| Sarah West | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Sarah Cooke 22 March 1790 Bath, England |
| Died | 30 December 1876 (aged 86) Glasgow, Scotland |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Actress |
Sarah West (1790–1876) was a British actress.
She was born Sarah Cooke in Bath, Somerset on 22 March 1790, daughter of Mr. Cooke of Bath. Influenced by her cousin Harriet Waylett, she appeared at the Theatre Royal, Bath on 22 May 1810 for the benefit of her uncle, an actor, playing Miss Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer, and in 1811, at the same house, played Emily Tempest in The Wheel of Fortune.
In the summer of 1812, she played at Cheltenham and Gloucester. Recommended by Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kemble, she made, as Miss Cooke, her first appearance at Covent Garden on 28 September 1812 as Desdemona. On 10 November 1814, she played Juliet at Edinburgh. She was followed there by William West (see below), and in March 1815 they married.
On 30 September 1815, as "Mrs. W. West (late Miss Cooke) from Edinburgh", she reappeared in Bath. On 17 September 1818, she made as Desdemona her first appearance at Drury Lane Theatre. Leading business, principally tragic, was now assigned her. After the death of Alexander Rae, the Edgar to her Cordelia and the Lear of Edmund Kean, she spoke an address for the benefit of his family on 31 October 1820. It was thought an example of her dramatic intelligence that she avoided the last line, which was to be "pardon Cordelia's tears, they're shed for Rae". Conscious of its bathos, she substituted for it, with great effect, the line, "Pardon Cordelia's tears. Poor Tom's a cold."
West was at Drury Lane the first Beaumelle in an alteration of the The Fatal Dowry on 5 January 1824. When the record in John Genest's history stops, information concerning her becomes scanty. In 1835 she was at Covent Garden under David Osbaldiston, but played mainly secondary parts, and she then lapsed into performing at lesser theatres. Her last London engagement was at the Marylebone Theatre about 1847.
Sarah West died at Glasgow on 30 December 1876 at the house of her great-nephew, Henry Courte Cooke, and was buried at Sighthill cemetery on 2 January 1877.
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