Walker Whiteside
| Walker Whiteside | |
|---|---|
The Players Blue Book - 1901
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| Born |
March 16, 1869 Logansport, Indiana, U.S. |
| Died | August 17, 1942 (aged 73) Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, U.S. |
| Occupation | Stage actor |
| Years active | 1884–1935 |
| Spouse(s) | Leila Wolston McCord |
Walker Whiteside (1869 – 1942) was an American actor who had played Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Shylock while still in his teens.
Walker Whiteside was born on March 16, 1869, near the confluence of the Wabash and Eel rivers at Logansport in northern Indiana. He was a child of Thomas C. and Lavina (née Walker) Whiteside. He had a sister, Matilda (Tillie; 6/14/1861-4/25/1884; married Charles K. Allen, 1880; had son, George Allen, 1883) Walker’s family would later move to the Chicago suburb of Riverside where his father’s law practice afforded them the luxury of two servants. In the years to come, Thomas Whiteside would serve as an Indiana state judge and as a member of the Indiana Supreme Court. Lavina Whiteside was born in Indiana, the daughter of Judge George B. Walker, a native of Maryland who had settled in Logansport.
While in his teens or earlier, Walker Whiteside attended acting classes under the tutelage of Professor Samuel Kayzer of the Dramatic Conservatory of Chicago. His ability there to play roles that would appear to be beyond his years soon drew local media attention as the boy tragedian of Chicago. In October 1884, the not yet sixteen-year-old actor hired Alderman Ford, a theatrical agent from Kansas City and, on November 17, made his professional stage debut in Richard III at Chicago’s Grand Opera House. Walker found the experience both terrifying and exhilarating, but knew immediately he had found his calling.
He spent much of the following decade or so with Shakespearean companies, touring primarily America’s Midwest, before making his New York premier in April 1893 at the Union Square Theatre, playing Hamlet and Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s Richelieu. In 1894, Whiteside again performed Hamlet for the debut season of the Grand Opera House in Traverse City, Michigan. By the dawn of the 20th century, and barely into his thirties, Walker had played Hamlet in some 1,400 productions.
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