Fox, G. L.

Fox, G. L. [ George Washington Lafayette] (1825–77), American actor and pantomimist, was on the stage as a child, and from 1850 to 1858 was at Purdy's National Theatre (see CHATHAM THEATRE 2) where in 1853 he persuaded the management to put on Aiken's adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, which was a great success. In 1858 he became joint manager of the Bowery, where from 1862 to 1867 he staged a long series of successful pantomimes. He then moved to the Olympic, giving in 1867 a fine performance as Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and a year later producing his pantomime Humpty-Dumpty and a travesty of Hamlet which Edwin Booth is said to have enjoyed. His Wee Willie Winkie (1870) also had a long run. Considered the ‘peer of pantomimists’, he continued to appear in successive editions of Humpty-Dumpty until his death.

Much of the pantomime ‘business’ in his shows was devised by his brother Charles Kemble Fox (1835–75), who was also a child actor. He was in Uncle Tom's Cabin, as was his mother, and played Pantaloon in his brother's pantomimes.