Finn, Henry James

Finn, Henry James (1785–1840), actor. Born in Cape Breton, he was educated at Princeton for the law as a career but turned to the theatre when he became an assistant prop boy at the Park Theatre, possibly playing minor roles there in 1804. After performing at London's Haymarket Theatre, Finn debuted in New York as Shylock in 1818, then spent several seasons in Charleston. Although he played such characters as Hamlet, The Stranger, and Othello back in New York, he began to gravitate toward comic roles, by 1824 playing Sir Andrew Aguecheek, Paul Pry, Sir Peter Teazle, and Bob Logic. The New York Mirror noted, “Mr. Finn's style of playing is broadly ludicrous. His delineations are sketched with a strong and masterly hand, and are generally correct, though sometimes rough likenesses.” He scored a major success as Sergeant Welcome Sobersides in his own play Montgomery; or, The Falls of Montmorency (1825). He may also have been the author of The Indian Wife (1830), which made Sobersides a major character. Later, he wrote a farce about President Jackson's battle with the United States Bank called Removing the Deposits (1835). Finn died in a ship fire while traveling between New York and Boston.