Kean, Edmund

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Kean, Edmund (1787–1833). Actor. Son of an itinerant actress, Kean was exploited as an infant prodigy in London before being forced onto various provincial circuits, undergoing years of hardship but eventually playing most of the major parts. The impassioned delivery of his reappearance at Drury Lane (1814) as Shylock was so remarkable that the theatre's coffers were rapidly replenished. Barely average height, his flashing, sometimes demoniac approach, which so contrasted with the measured Kemble school, made him one of the most controversial of the early 19th-cent. actors, generating as much abuse as admiration. Described by Talma as ‘a magnificent uncut gem’, and famous for his tragic roles of Richard III, Shylock, and Othello, he briefly visited France and America. Youthful irresponsibility quickly evolved into recklessness, vanity, intolerance of rivals, and drunken debauch, so, by 1827, loss of respectability was accompanied by visible physical disintegration.

A. S. Hargreaves

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