Cooper, Thomas Abthorpe

Cooper, Thomas Abthorpe (1776–1849), actor and manager. The son of an English surgeon, he had become a prominent young actor on the London stage when Thomas Wignell persuaded him to come to America in 1796. He made his debut that year in Baltimore as Macbeth, later playing the same role in Philadelphia, which was his first American home. In 1797 Cooper made his New York debut as Pierre in Venice Preserved, followed by his Hamlet, a performance the Commercial Advertiser praised as “transcendently excellent.” King John, Romeo, and Bland in André were other roles he essayed in Philadelphia, but when he fought with Wignell over assignments and salary, he moved to New York where he continued to enlarge his repertory both of classic works and contemporary pieces. He won special applause in the title part of The Stranger and in several plays by the newly popular Kotzebue. After Dunlap went bankrupt, Cooper assumed the management of the Park Theatre. Although Ireland noted, “With a handsome face and noble person, a fine mellow voice, unusual dignity of manner and grace of action, and in his declamation most forcible and eloquent, as a tragedian he was without rival,” many critics felt he was not totally professional, given as he was to waving and winking at friends in the audience and often failing properly to learn a part and requiring prompting. With time his popularity began to fade, but not before playing Othello to Edwin Forrest's Iago and managing the failing Chatham Theatre. His last New York appearance in 1835, at the age of sixty‐one, was Antony in Julius Caesar. Cooper spent his last years as Inspector of the New York Custom House. Whatever his origins and failings, his acceptance of American citizenship has led to his generally being called the first great American tragedian. Biography: A Memoir of the Professional Life of Thomas Abthorpe Cooper, Joseph N. Ireland, 1888.