Stoddart, J(ames) H(enry)

Stoddart, J[ames] H[enry] (1827–1907), character actor. Born in Yorkshire, England, he was the son of a moderately popular actor and first played children's roles opposite his father. Stoddart performed mainly in Scotland and the north of England before coming to America, where he made his debut with Wallack's company in 1854 as Mr. Sowerberry in A Phenomenon in a Smock Frock. The slim, handsome, if somewhat gaunt‐faced, actor was immediately recognized as a superior low comedian. His performance of Don Whiskerandos in The Critic was hailed by the English comedian Charles Mathews as the best he had ever seen. A fiery temperament saw Stoddart move back and forth from Wallack's to Laura Keene's to Palmer's and back again. His performance as the rascally innkeeper Pierre in Rose Michel was so successful that he largely abandoned comic roles for more villainous ones. It was his refusal to play the Baron Chevrial in A Parisian Romance (1883) that gave Richard Mansfield his start. Although his prominence later diminished, Stoddart continued to act until he was struck by a train, ending an American career of over half a century. Autobiography: Recollections of a Player, 1902.