Goodwin, Nat(haniel Carl)

Goodwin, Nat[haniel Carl] (1857–1919), actor. The comedian, who was as famous in his own day for his offstage roistering as for his performances, was born in Boston and educated at the Little Blue Academy in Farmington, Maine. His acting in school productions came to the attention of several famous performers, though later it was Stuart Robson who gave him his professional start when he persuaded John B. Stetson to cast Goodwin as a shoeblack in Law in New York (1874) at Boston's Howard Atheneum. After appearing as a mimic at Tony Pastor's, Goodwin played for several seasons in E. E. Rice's musicals and then organized his own farce‐comedy troupe, the Froliques. He performed in many written‐to‐order pieces such as The Skating Rink (1885), Little Jack Sheppard (1886), Turned Up (1886), and Lend Me Five Shillings (1887), then scored a major hit as Chauncey Short in A Gilded Fool (1892). A year later he essayed a more serious role, the sheriff Jim Rayburn in In Mizzoura. Augustus Thomas, who wrote the play, recalled; “In person he [was] under the average height, and, then, was slight, graceful, and with a face capable of conveying the subtlest shades of feeling. The forehead was ample; the eyes were large and blue, clear and steady. The nose was mildly Roman; the hair was the colour of new hay. His voice was rich and modulated.” Among his subsequent later successes were the title role in Nathan Hale (1899) and as Richard Carewe in When We Were Twenty‐one (1900), both opposite his wife, Maxine Elliott. Goodwin's final success came shortly before his death: the monogamist‐at‐heart Uncle Everett in Why Marry? (1917). In his early career Goodwin espoused the broad, grotesque low comedy so popular at the time, but as styles changed so did he. In his later roles he was praised for his warmth and polished restraint. Although he longed throughout his career to play Shakespeare, his attempts at Bottom, the First Gravedigger, and Shylock were failures. Autobiography: Nat Goodwin's Book, 1914.