Davenport, E(dward) L(oomis)

Davenport, E[dward] L[oomis] (1815–77), actor. The son of a Boston innkeeper, Davenport made his debut in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1837, billed simply as Mr. E. Dee and playing opposite Junius Brutus Booth in A New Way to Pay Old Debts. His first New York appearance was as Frederick Fitzallen in He's Not A‐Miss, in a company led by Mrs. Henry Hunt (the future Mrs. John Drew). Davenport later demonstrated the range of his repertory by first playing Othello to F. B. Conway's Iago, followed by Hamlet, Claude Melnotte, Sir Giles Overreach, and William (in Black‐Eyed Susan), as well as creating the part of Lanciotto in Boker's Francesca da Rimini. His performances regularly won critical acclaim, but for some reason he was never able to earn the affection of playgoers. His fellow actors, however, admired his talents, and at one time or another he was welcomed into all the major ensembles of his day: Burton's, Wallack's, and Daly's. Much of the time he toured in a company headed by himself and his wife, the former Fanny [Elizabeth] Vining (1829–91), highlighted by his Brutus to Lawrence Barrett's Cassius in a celebrated mounting of Julius Caesar (1875) and Edgar to Barrett's Lear (1876), his final New York appearance. His farewell was as Dan'l Druce in Washington in 1877. Attempting to explain Davenport's lack of popularity with the public, George Odell suggested, “Perhaps his versatility, his finish, his lack of sensational clap‐trap, militated against him with a people that admired the physical vigour of Forrest and the electrical effects of the elder Booth.” Whatever his failings, he fathered a large theatrical family. Four of his children attained some distinction in the theatre, most notably Fanny Davenport. His younger daughter, May Davenport (1856–1927), was an important member of the companies at the Chestnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia, Daly's, and the Boston Museum. His son Edgar L[ongfellow] (1862–1918) played at both the Chestnut and the Walnut Street in Philadelphia, toured as leading man with Kate Claxton and McKee Rankin, and was long a major actor at the Boston Museum. A younger son, Harry [ George Bryant] (1866–1949), first gained fame as Sir Joseph Porter in the celebrated 1879 children's company of H. M. S. Pinafore and later became a popular leading man in both straight plays and musical comedies, creating the leading man's role of Harry Brown in The Belle of New York (1897). He was one of the earliest important performers to leave the stage for a career in silent films, though he continued to return to theatre as late as 1935. Biography: Edward Loomis Davenport, Edwin Francis, 1901.