Hackett, J(ames) H(enry)

Hackett, J[ames] H[enry] (1800–71), actor and manager. Born in New York, he studied law and went into business before making his acting debut at the Park Theater in 1826 as Justice Woodcock in Love in a Village. Not until he essayed Dromio of Ephesus later that year did he win widespread fame. Hackett would become probably the finest Shakespearean comedian of his day, but to most playgoers he was a favorite because of his Yankee characterizations. Examples of the latter include Solomon Swop in his own adaptation, Jonathan in England (1928), Rip Van Winkle, and the unlettered Kentucky congressman Colonel Nimrod Wildfire in The Lion of the West. This last character proved so popular that Hackett reprised the character in The Kentuckian (1833). His finest Shakespearean creation was Falstaff, which prompted William Winter to write, “He interpreted a mind that was merry, but one in which merriment was strongly tinctured with scorn. It cared nothing about virtue, except that some persons trade on that attribute; and it knew nothing about sweetness, except that it is a property of sugar and a good thing in sack.” Later in his career Hackett attempted Lear and Hamlet, but these were unsuccessful, so most of his long theatrical life was passed playing roles he popularized early on. Hackett also managed theatres, including the Bowery, the Chatham, the National, and the Astor Place Opera House, this last at the time of the Astor Place Riots. Considered something of a Shakespearean scholar as well, he was instrumental in New York's erecting a statue of Shakespeare in Central Park. His first wife, Catherine Leesugg (1797–1848), was a popular singer and actress.