Hopper, de Wolf (William D'Wolf Hopper)

Hopper, de Wolf [William D'Wolf Hopper] (1858–1935), comic actor. Descendant of a family that traced its ancestry back to colonial America, he was born in New York and raised in expectation of following in his father's footsteps as a lawyer. Instead he used his inheritance to form his own short‐lived theatrical company, then studied voice with the hopes of an opera career. However, when John McCaull cast him as a singing comedian in Désirée in 1884, his success was so pronounced that he realized immediately he had found his life's work. Among his major early musicals were The Black Hussar (1885), The Beggar Student (1885), The Begum (1887), The Lady or the Tiger (1888), and Castles in the Air (1890), his first starring vehicle. A major success was his conniving regent, the title role of Wang (1891), followed by the less successful Panjandrum (1893) and Dr. Syntax (1894). In 1896 Hopper first played the role with which he is most identified, the wily viceroy of Peru Don Medigua in John Philip Sousa's El Capitan. In subsequent seasons he appeared in The Charlatan (1898), Fiddle‐Dee‐Dee (1900), Hoity Toity (1901), Mr. Pickwick (1903), Happyland (1905), The Pied Piper (1908), A Matinee Idol (1910), a series of Gilbert and Sullivan revivals, Lieber Augustin (1913), Hop o' My Thumb (1913), The Passing Show of 1917, Everything (1918), a revival of Erminie (1921), Snapshots of 1921, and Some Party (1922). He also played Falstaff, as well as David in The Rivals. By this time his popularity had waned with Broadway audiences, but he found a welcome touring in revivals of El Capitan, The Chocolate Soldier, and a road company of The Student Prince (1927). An exceedingly tall, thin man with a deep basso voice, he made famous the poem “Casey at the Bat” early in his career, and thereafter recited it either in his shows or as part of his curtain calls. He was notorious for having been married six times. One of his wives was Edna Wallace HOPPER, (1864?–1959), an exceptionally tiny (said to be well under five feet) singer and comedienne who was born in San Francisco and made her New York debut in 1891. She was a rising member of Charles Frohman's stock company when she married Hopper and turned to the musical stage. She played major roles in such shows as El Capitan (1896) and Florodora (1900). In later years she remained popular in vaudeville, in which she traded on her deceptively youthful appearance. Autobiography (De Wolf): Once a Clown, Always a Clown, with Wesley Winan Stout, 1927.