Fox, G(eorge Washington) L(afayette)

Fox, G[eorge Washington] L[afayette] (1825–77), actor and manager. The greatest American exponent of classical pantomime and often called the first “star” of the American musical theatre, he was born in Boston into a family of “actors of a mediocre kind such as used to delight rural New England audiences but rarely appeared before city theatre‐goers.” He did play Boston, however, at the age of seven, appearing in The Hunter of the Alps but did not make his New York debut until 1850, when he joined the company of the National Theatre, using the name Lafayette Fox. He remained there for several seasons, playing a large variety of roles and is generally credited with persuading the company to mount Uncle Tom's Cabin, the theatre's greatest success. He later moved to the Bowery Theatre, where as manager he regularly inserted pantomimes into the bill. His greatest success came, after he moved to the Olympic Theatre, as Humpty Dumpty (1868), which he wrote, possibly in collaboration with his brother Charles, and which established a long‐run record for the day. This was followed by other pantomimes and burlesques: Hiccory Diccory Dock (1869), Hamlet (1870), Macbeth (1870), and Wee Willie Winkie (1870). Afterwards, he continued to play for several seasons in various versions of Humpty Dumpty until increasingly erratic behavior (he once ran into the auditorium and attacked members of the audience without provocation) forced his removal from the stage. He died a short time later, apparently of paresis. Fox was a small, lean man with sharp darting eyes and pointed features that reflected his name. At the height of his popularity he was the highest‐paid entertainer in America, with a yearly income that exceeded $20,000.