Holland, George (1791–1870), comic actor. The son of a London tradesman, he himself spent several years in trade before electing to make a career of acting. Holland was already an experienced comedian when he came to America in 1827 and won over
Bowery Theatre playgoers as Jerry, the man who assumes several disguises, in
A Day after the Fair. After some time he performed in the South, where he became a regional favorite, particularly in New Orleans where Sol
Smith recalled “he enjoyed a popularity never perhaps equaled by any other actor in that city.” Holland was back in New York in the 1840s, and by 1853 he was a member of William E.
Burton's celebrated company, joining James
Wallack's ensemble two years later. Except for a brief stint with Christy's Minstrels in 1857 he remained a principal comedian with Wallack until 1869, when he briefly joined Augustin
Daly. T. Allston
Brown observed, “He was unlike any other actor I ever saw. . .an opportunity of tumbling over a chair, upsetting a table or burning his nose with a candle, was worth to him more than all the finest sentences of wit and sentiment. In the overstrained, unnatural and exaggerated style of farce. . .[he] was in many respects unequaled.” Yet it was not his art but an incident after his death for which he is best remembered. His son and the actor Joseph
Jefferson went to arrange his burial, only to be told by the Reverend Lorenzo Sabine that his church did not welcome actors but that there was “a little church around the corner where they do that sort of thing.” Holland's funeral thus gave a special cachet to New York's Church of the Transfiguration in American theatrical history. Biography:
Holland Memorial: Sketch of the Life of George Holland, the Veteran Comedian, with Dramatic Reminiscences, William B. Maclay, 1871.
