Coburn, Charles (Douville)

Coburn, Charles [Douville] (1877–1961), actor and manager. Born in Macon, Georgia, he began his career as a program seller at a Savannah theatre and by the age of seventeen was the playhouse's manager. Coburn later performed in stock in Chicago before making his New York debut in 1901 in Up York State. After heading a road company of The Christian (1904), he and his first wife, Ivah Wills Coburn, formed the Coburn Shakespearean Players in 1906 and toured for several seasons playing virtually the entire Shakespeare canon. His stocky build and slightly pompous style made him an especially notable Falstaff. In 1916 he produced and took a principal role in the Chinese drama The Yellow Jacket, a play he successfully revived on occasion. Coburn's best‐known role, however, was probably the bragging Old Bill in The Better 'Ole (1918). None of his later appearances was quite as popular, although he won praise as the day‐dreaming button‐maker David Hungerstolz in The Bronx Express (1922) and as widower Samuel Sweetland in The Farmer's Wife (1924). In 1925 he played James Telfer in an all‐star revival of Trelawny of the Wells. Later he accepted major assignments in several revivals mounted by The Players and in 1934 founded the Mohawk Drama Festival & Institute. Coburn retired from the stage after his wife's death in 1937 and enjoyed a long career in films, but he returned to tour as Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor (1946). For several summers shortly before his death he played Grandpa Vanderhof in You Can't Take It with You on the straw‐hat circuit.