Kean, Charles John

Kean, Charles John (1811–68), English actor-manager, son of Edmund Kean, who sent him to Eton with the idea of detaching him from the stage. But when, at the time of his father's break with Drury Lane, he was offered an engagement there, he accepted it and made his first appearance in 1827 as Young Norval in Home's Douglas. Realizing that he lacked experience he then went into the provinces, and in 1828 was seen on stage with his father in Glasgow. They were not to play together again until Edmund Kean's last appearance. Charles had none of his father's genius, but was a serious, hardworking man, somewhat priggish, but with plenty of application and common sense. With his wife Ellen Tree (1806–80), a good actress who played opposite him in many important productions, he ran an excellent company, which from 1850 to 1859 appeared at the Princess's Theatre in a series of carefully chosen and well-rehearsed plays, set and costumed lavishly, as the fashion of the time demanded, but with some attempt at historical accuracy. Queen Victoria was a frequent visitor to the Princess's, as was the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, husband of one of the Queen's nieces, and Kean's work probably inspired many of the reforms attributed to the Meininger company. It was under Kean that Ellen Terry, as a child of 9, made her first appearance on stage.