Charles James Mathews
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
. He was one of the few British actors to be successful in French-speaking roles in France. A son of the actor Charles Mathews
Charles Mathews
Charles Mathews was an English theatre manager and comic actor, well-known during his time for his gift of impersonation and skill at table entertainment...
, he achieved a greater reputation than his father in the same profession and also excelled at light comedy. He toured three times in the United States, and met and married his second wife there.
Biography
Charles James Mathews was born in LiverpoolLiverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
. After attending Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby
Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby
Merchant Taylors' School, Crosby is a British independent school for day pupils, located in Great Crosby on Merseyside....
, he was articled as apprentice to an architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
. For some years, he worked at this profession.
His first public appearance on the stage was made on 7 December 1835, at the Olympic Theatre
Olympic Theatre
The Olympic Theatre, sometimes known as the Royal Olympic Theatre, was a 19th-century London theatre, opened in 1806 and located at the junction of Drury Lane, Wych Street, and Newcastle Street. The theatre specialised in comedies throughout much of its existence...
in London, as George Rattleton in his own play The Humpbacked Lover, and as Tim Topple the Tiger in Leman Rode's Old and Young Stager.
Marriage and family
In 1838, he married Madame VestrisLucia Elizabeth Vestris
Lucia Elizabeth Vestris was an English actress and a contralto opera singer, appearing in Mozart and Rossini works. While popular in her time, she was more notable as a theatre producer and manager...
, then lessee of the Olympic, as her second husband. That year he also toured the U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, to lukewarm reviews. They had one son, later Sir Charles Mathews
Sir Charles Willie Mathews, 1st Baronet
Sir Charles Willie Mathews, 1st Baronet, familiarly known as Willie Mathews was a British lawyer.He was born Charles Willie West in New York City, the son of actress Elizabeth Jackson and her first husband William West...
, public prosecutor. In 1856, Mme Vestris died.
The following year Mathews again visited the U.S., and there in 1858 he married Mrs A. H. Davenport.
Career
Mathews started managingActor-manager
An actor-manager is a leading actor who sets up their own permanent theatrical company and manages the company's business and financial arrangements, sometimes taking over the management of a theatre, to perform plays of their own choice and in which they will usually star...
the Olympic Theatre soon after his marriage to Mme Vestris, but did not succeed financially. Despite introducing innovations of more realistic and detailed scenery, his following management of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, and the Lyceum Theatre also had limited financial return. They did have quite a success with their production of the Victorian farce London Assurance
London Assurance
London Assurance is a five-act comedy by Dion Boucicault. It was the second play that he wrote, but his first to be produced. Its first production, from March 4, 1841 at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden was Boucicault's first major success...
(1841), commissioned for their company and written by Dion Boucicault
Dion Boucicault
Dionysius Lardner Boursiquot , commonly known as Dion Boucicault, was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the most successful actor-playwright-managers then in the...
. This was Boucicault's first major success.
London Assurance has continued to have revival productions to great success in both London and New York. Most recently it played to sellout crowds at the Royal National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
in the spring of 2010. The production starred Fiona Shaw
Fiona Shaw
Fiona Shaw, CBE is an Irish actress and theatre director. Although to international audiences she is probably most familiar for her minor role as Petunia Dursley in the Harry Potter films, she is an accomplished classical actress...
and Simon Russell Beale
Simon Russell Beale
Simon Russell Beale, CBE is an English actor. He has been described by The Independent as "the greatest stage actor of his generation."-Early years:...
. It was broadcast internationally by simulcast
Simulcast
Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often...
in the NTLive! series.
As an actor in England, Mathews held an unrivalled place in his unique vein of light eccentric comedy. He had an easy grace combined with "imperturbable solemnity", a combination which amused people; his humour was never broad, but always measured and restrained. It was as the leading character in such plays as the Game of Speculation, My Awful Dad, Cool as a Cucumber, Patter versus Clatter, and Little Toddlekins, that he especially excelled.
After Mathews' return to England with his second wife, in 1861, they gave a series of "At Home" tabletop reviews at the Haymarket Theatre. These were nearly as popular as those of his father had been.
Charles James Mathews was one of the few English actors who successfully played French-speaking roles. In 1863 he appeared in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in a French version of his play Cool as a Cucumber, and was received with praise. He played there again in 1865 as Sir Charles Coldcream in the original play L'Homme blasé (English version by Boucicault
Dion Boucicault
Dionysius Lardner Boursiquot , commonly known as Dion Boucicault, was an Irish actor and playwright famed for his melodramas. By the later part of the 19th century, Boucicault had become known on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the most successful actor-playwright-managers then in the...
was known as Used Up.)
At age 66 in 1869, Mathews set out on a tour round the world, including a third visit to the U.S. He made his last appearance in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
at Wallack's Theatre on 7 June 1872, in H. J. Byron's Not such a Fool as He Looks.
After his return to England in 1872, he continued to act until within a few weeks of his death. His last appearance in London was at the Opéra Comique on 2 June 1877, in The Liar and The Cosy Couple. At Stalybridge he gave his last performance on 8 June 1878, when he played Adonis Evergreen in his comedy My Awful Dad.
Mathews died June 24, 1878.