Milnes Levick

Milnes Levick (January 30, 1825 – April 18, 1897) was an English comedian and actor who worked primarily in the United States, where he became known as a Shakespearean actor, particularly for his portrayal of Julius Caesar.^[1]

Born in Boston, Lincolnshire, Levick left England at the age of 28 and found career success in the United States. He performed in many shows, particularly Shakespeare's plays. He died of cancer in 1897 after fifty years on the stage, mostly as the leading man to some of theatre's most famous names of the late 19th century. Levick became a United States citizen on October 14, 1861.

Levick began his career in England at the Boston Dramatic Company in 1845. In 1851 he appeared onstage in Scarborough and Sunderland. On January 1, 1852 he appeared at the Theatre Royal, Sunderland in Macbeth, The Teacher Taught and The Tipperary Legacy.^[2] In July of that year he received a positive review for his performance in Leap Year at the Theatre Royal in Scarborough.^[3] Four months later, he was on stage at the newly reopened North Shields theatre. In September 1853, he received a positive review for his performance at the Theatre Royal in Scarborough.^[4] In November, the New Theatre Royal in North Shields announced its opening season, and at the same time informed the public that Levick had left the country.^[5]

Initially a comedian, Levick had graduated to acting but achieved little recognition until he arrived in New York. In late 1853 he appeared as Alfred Highflyer in A Roland for an Oliver at the Old Broadway Theatre.^[6] He was then cast as George Harris in Uncle Tom's Cabin at P. T. Barnum's American Museum on December 6, 1853,^[7] replacing Corson W. Clarke.^[8] This Tom show was one of the earliest performances of Harriet Beecher Stowe's book, which had been running for a month when Levick joined the cast, and where he initially gained recognition in the US.

After four years at Barnum's museum, he joined Laura Keene when she opened her own theatre.^[9] His first appearance with Laura Keene's company was in Blanche of Brandywine which ran from April 22nd to May 12th 1858.^[10] He then appeared as Fag in The Rivals on September 6th 1858, followed by the role of Trip in School for Scandal which included eight acknowledged stars in its cast. On October 4th he appeared in London Assurance, before Our American Cousin was played for the first time on October 18th.^[11] There he established a reputation in the role of Lt. Harry Vernon (of the Royal Navy) in the "the most successful comedy produced in the US for many years", to quote T. Allston Brown. Levick's second wife (born Emily Sagon Page) also appeared with him as Skillet. The run eventually ended on April 15th 1859. It was revived on January 9th 1862 when Levick replaced E. A. Sothern in the role of Lord Dundreary.^[12] On May 4th 1863, Laura Keene starred in Tib, or Our Cat in Crinoline, one of several plays Levick wrote, which closed the season and Laura Keene's management of the theatre on May 8th 1863.^[13]

Another actor in Keene's company was Edwin Booth, the older brother of John Wilkes Booth. Their father, Junius, was considered the most prominent actor in the US in the first half of the nineteenth century, and Edwin became equally famous. John Wilkes Booth (who had been a member of Keene's company) was widely acknowledged for his Shakespearean roles and was one of the highest paid actors in the US before he shot and killed Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865. The president and his wife were watching Keene's final performance as Florence Trenchard in Our American Cousin, a play they had previously seen when Levick was part of the original cast. Keene had arranged the show for that evening at Ford's Theatre and invited Lincoln as she knew it was one of his favorites. After Lincoln died, Keene and some of her fellow actors were temporarily arrested as possible co-conspirators.

Keene had toured Australia with Edwin Booth, and both appeared on stage with Levick on many occasions between 1858 and 1863. Later, Edwin established his own Booth's Theatre, and Levick performed there frequently in leading roles. Levick was also instrumental in the discovery of Mary Anderson, who rose to fame in the US and Europe as a leading lady. He was performing in Louisville, Kentucky to an almost empty house when the then-unknown Anderson approached the manager of Macauley's Theatre, asking to play the part of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. The manager was desperate enough that he convinced Levick and his company of actors to immediately rehearse for a performance two days later. She later thanked Levick, and said he was the only one to support and encourage her.^[14] They remained friends to the end of his life.^[15]

Levick also served as stage manager during his time at Barnum's New Museum in the season beginning September 1867 where he appeared on stage with Corson W. Clarke just prior to his death on September 22nd of that year. Clarke was a veteran with 30 years experience at the National Theatre, Park Theatre and the Bowery Theatre.^[16] Levick performed leading parts in productions with the most famous actors of the time, including:

• Geneviève Ward in Jane Shore. ^[17]
• Ernesto Rossi, supporting his 1881-82 tour of the US.
• Charlotte Cushman in Macbeth, Henry VIII, and Simpson & Co..
• Minna Gale in The Hunchback.
• Fanny Janauschek, in Chesney Wold and Henry VIII.
• Margaret Mather, in Romeo and Juliet and Leah.
• Julia Marlowe, in Ingomar, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, The Hunchback, Pygmalion and Galatea.
• Edwin Booth, in The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, and As You Like It.
• Mary Anderson - Levick was the leading man in her company of actors, and appeared in Romeo and Juliet, The Hunchback, Evadne, Ingomar, The Lady of Lyons, Love, and Fazio, among others.
• Joseph Jefferson in Our American Cousin and Blanche of Brandywine (April 1858).
• Edward Askew Sothern in Our American Cousin. Levick took over the role of Lord Dundreary in 1862 when Sothern left Laura Keene's company to tour Europe. Again in 1866 at Barnum's New Museum he revived the role.^[18]
• Charles Walter Couldock in Our American Cousin^[19] and As You Like It (May 1887 benefit performance).
• Charles Fechter in Hamlet at Niblo's Garden in 1870.^[20]

• Dion Boucicault in Jeannie Deans^[21] and The Colleen Bawn.^[22]
• John McCullough (actor) in Richelieu and Romeo & Juliet November 2nd 1874 playbill.
• Charles Melton Walcot, Jr. in She Stoops to Conquer.^[23]
• Barney Williams (actor) in The Emerald Ring at Niblo's Garden March 18th 1870.
• Walter Montgomery (actor) in Hamlet and As You Like It at Niblo's Garden November 28th 1870.

Levick performed in a new drama at Barnum's Museum on January 23, 1865 called The Union Prisoner, or The Patriot's Daughter, which he had written.^[24] On July 13, 1865, the Barnum's Museum building was destroyed by fire resulting in Milnes becoming temporarily unemployed.^[25] In 1866 he presented his play The Union Prisoner many times in Chicago^[26] before returning to New York. On September 3rd 1866 Levick headed up a new dramatic company at Barnum's New Museum, where he was also the stage manager. His plays Pale Janet and The Union Prisoner^[27] were performed there and he resurrected his role as Lord Dundreary in Our American Cousin. He also wrote and appeared in The Limekiln Man and Sybil's Cave which met with some success.^[28] On March 3rd 1868 this building also caught fire and was also destroyed. Levick had earlier written Tib, or Our Cat in Crinoline for Laura Keene, in which she played the leading role when it opened on May 4th 1863, which was her last performance with the theatre was under her management.^[29]

Levick was probably best known for his portrayal of Julius Caesar^[30] at Booth's Theatre. He was also a leading member of the Union Square Theatre company from 1876. He played leading parts in several Bartley Campbell dramas and Campbell once said of Levick's adopted son Gus, that he could "bring a curtain down better than any darned actor in America".^[31]

Levick's final appearance on stage was in 1892 at the Star Theatre, where he appeared as Walter in The Hunchback, supporting Minna Gale. Mary Anderson later presented him with her portrait, on the back of which she had written, "To the best Master Walter that ever trod the stage".^[32]

Milnes Levick was named after his mother Eleanor Milnes, who married his father, George Levick, on September 5, 1815, at Babworth Church in Nottinghamshire. George was an innkeeper and lived in Retford, Nottinghamshire after marrying Eleanor. Their first two children were born there before moving to Boston, Milnes' birthplace. On his marriage certificate on March 27, 1845, Milnes was described as a "hatter". He married Matilda Flint, who at 26 was six years older than him. Together they had three daughters, all of whom died in childhood. His first child named Eleanor after his mother, was born May 1st 1846 in Boston, Lincolnshire and died July 27th 1855 in Scarborough, Yorkshire. His second child Ina, named after his younger sister was born in Hull, Yorkshire in the last quarter of 1848 and died there on December 29th the same year. His third child Emily (who appears to have been named after his mistress) was born on July 25th 1851 in Scarborough and died on January 26th 1853 in Tynemouth, Northumberland.

Milnes also had an illegitimate son, born secretly in London to his mistress on March 22nd 1852, the daughter of a prominent Yorkshire solicitor, William Sagon Page (1792 to 1854). Milnes registered the birth in the London sub district of Hanover Square as Gustavus Richard Craven Milne, stating his own name as Levick Milne and the boy's mother as Emily Sagon Milne, formerly Page. He gave their address as 9, Mount Street, Grosvenor Square, which was the home of Emily's brother. Gustavus died at the age of five on June 5th 1857 in Brooklyn, New York.

Eighteen months after Emily gave birth to Gustavus (presumably named after Gustavus Vaughan Brooke),^[33][34] they arrived in New York to begin a new life. Milnes bigamously married Emily on February 27, 1854 less than six months after arriving in New York. They adopted a baby boy named George who was born eleven days after their marriage. Milnes once stated that he adopted the child because he was "the son of a very good friend", but provided no more details. About a year after Milnes, Emily and their baby Gustavus arrived in the US, Milnes parents, George and Eleanor Levick, together with Milnes' younger brother James, joined him. Milne's father acted as his agent for several years but developed dementia in the late 1860s and died on January 21st 1873.

When their biological son died, Milnes and Emily switched the identity of their adopted child (whose parents were English according to census records) with that of their deceased son, and at the age of three, George became Gustavus Richard Levick, growing up to be known as Gus Levick (March 10, 1854 to July 8, 1909). Gus also established himself as a well known actor and first appeared on stage with his father on March 12 1874 as Cromwell in Henry VIII at Booth's Theatre.

Many of Milnes Levick's contempories toured Europe once they had built a reputation in the US, but this wasn't an option for Milnes as his hasty departure from England has been reported harshly in the press. The Era (newspaper) of November 13th 1853 reported, "Mr Milnes Levick has, we are given to understand, left this country, deserting his wife and child, and leaving them in the most destitute condition". Milnes daughter Eleanor died less than two years after he left England and his wife Matilda worked as a servant in private residences for almost 40 years until her death in early 1891.

Obviously Milnes wanted to distance himself from his rather dark past and an example is an interview he appeared to give to The Albany Arguson March 23rd 1879.^[35] By this time his parents and his wife Emily were all dead, so he clearly felt at liberty to create a rather amusing picture of his early life. There are aspects of his story that have parallels with reality, for example a young lady from England did visit him but she was his niece, not his sister. She was four years old when Milnes left England and probably remembered him very well. Of course, Milnes did not run away from home, he arrived in the US in the fall of 1853, not 1851 and his father was not the "Reverent Milton Levick", nor was Milnes the sixteenth of twenty-one children. He was actually the seventh of sixteen, but only seven of his siblings survived infancy. In 1850 he wasn't sixteen, he was twenty-five - married with a daughter aged four and had already experienced the death of another daughter. It is surprising that he refers to his second wife as Mary, since Emily had appeared on stage with him in Our American Cousin, so many readers in the world of theatre would have recognised this story as Milne's idea of a joke, after all, he was a comedian. It seems this may not have been an interview, but a piece written by Milnes to amuse his audience. It also perhaps attempted to answer why he had not pursued opportunities in Europe. Milnes remained in the US working on stage for the next thirteen years, evidence that the intent expressed in the article was entirely false.

On another occasion Milnes was interviewed by Octavus Cohen in New York regarding the discovery of Mary Anderson. The article was published in the Steubenville Daily Herald February 13th 1896 just over a year before he died. It also appeared in the Daily Mail in London on July 28th 1896. This interesting article provides a much clearer view of Mary Anderson as a sixteen year old girl, as well as an insight into Milnes' personality.

Despite having left England forty five years before his death, his obituary appeared in at least two English newspapers,The Guardian and The Stage. Many US and Canadian newspapers carried the news of his death with several mentioning his prominent roles and co-stars. At least two mentioned that he died a wealthy man, but this was due less to his earnings on stage than his property investments. The bulk of his estate was left to his adopted son Gus Levick, who ended his own stage career just a couple of years before inheriting^[36] his father's wealth.^[37]

Tributes paid in his obituaries were very generous, such as the following:

• Milnes Levick, one of the cleverest actors ever seen on the American stage, died yesterday morning at his home in East 138th Street where he had lived for thirty-four years.^[38]
• A close Shakesperean student, a conscientious worker, an actor of wide and varied experience, an upright man and a loyal friend, he will be sadly missed.^[39]
• Milnes Levick, one of the oldest and best actors on the American stage, died in NY on Sunday in his 73d year.^[40]
• The actor who claimed national fame as Julius Caesar.^[41]
• He is well remembered as the Julius Caesar in Jarrett & Palmer's famous production of Shakespeare's tragedy at Booth's Theatre^[42]