Laura Keene

Laura Keene c.1826-1873, Anglo-American actress-manager, b. England. She played with Mme Vestris at the Lyceum, London. She emigrated to the United States in 1852 and became manager (1855) of Laura Keene's Varieties Theater, New York City. In 1856 she opened Laura Keene's Theater (later the Olympic) and successfully produced and acted in many foreign and American plays until 1863. Her most famous production was Tom Taylor's Our American Cousin, which she gave at Ford's Theater, Washington, D.C., when Lincoln was shot there in 1865.

Keene, Laura (1826?–73), actress and manager. Her early history is obscure, even her birth year given as anywhere from 1820 to 1836, although her daughters insisted their mother was forty‐seven at her death. Her real surname is given as Foss, Moss, or Lee. Similarly, the year and place of her professional debut are uncertain, though it is known she did at one time act with Madame Vestris. Keene came to America in 1852 and first appeared before New York audiences as Albina Mandeville in J. W. Wallack's mounting of The Will, remaining with the company to become a popular favorite before leaving to assume management of a Baltimore theatre. When this failed she toured California and Australia before returning to New York in 1855 to open her own playhouse and quickly become Wallack's only serious rival. Although Keene staged some highly praised Shakespearean mountings, her company was best known for its contemporary works. Among her successes were Camille, Jane Eyre, and Our American Cousin. It was in these productions that Joseph Jefferson and E. A. Sothern rose to prominence. Her mounting of Our American Cousin established a long‐run record at “a first class house,” although Uncle Tom's Cabin and The Drunkard had run longer at more popular theatres. The onset of the Civil War presented financial problems for her, which she met initially by offering elaborate musical spectacles. When these finally palled, she abandoned her theatre and took to the road. She was playing Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington when Lincoln was assassinated there. While she had no part in the assassination, her career never recovered from her association with the incident. Although a somewhat puffy‐faced, heavy‐featured woman, she was, Jefferson noted, “esteemed a great beauty in her youth; even afterwards her rich and luxuriant auburn hair, clear complexion and deep chestnut eyes, full of expression, were greatly praised; but to me it was her style and carriage that commanded admiration, and it was this quality that won her audience. She had, too, the rare power of varying her manner, assuming the rustic walk of a milkmaid or the dignified grace of a queen.” Biography: The Life of Laura Keene, John Creahan, 1897.

Keene, Laura (?1826–73), American actress and theatre manager, born in England. The date of her birth has been variously given as 1820, 1826, 1830, and 1836, and her real name may have been Moss, Foss, or Lee. She is said to have been trained for the stage by an aunt, Mrs Yates, and to have made her first appearance as Juliet at the Richmond Theatre, Surrey, in 1851. Shortly afterwards she was seen at the Olympic Theatre in London, and in 1852 went to New York on her way to tour Australia. She returned to New York in 1855 and spent the rest of her life in the USA, where she was the first woman to become a theatre manager. In 1856 she opened her own theatre in New York with As You Like It, in which she played Rosalind. She presented a repertory of good foreign and American plays with an excellent stock company until after the outbreak of the Civil War, which forced her to lower her standards. She gave up her own theatre in 1862, but continued to act on tour and in other New York theatres. Among her outstanding actors were the third Joseph Jefferson and E. A. Sothern, who were jointly responsible for the success of Tom Taylor's Our American Cousin (1858). It was her company that was playing it at Ford's Theatre in Washington on the night Abraham Lincoln was assassinated there.