Walker Whiteside
Encyclopedia
Walker Whiteside was an American actor who had played Hamlet
, Othello
, King Lear
and Shylock
while still in his teens.
and Eel rivers at Logansport
in northern Indiana. He was the only child of Thomas C. and Lavina (née Walker) Whiteside. Walker’s family would later move to the Chicago suburb of Riverside
where his father’s law practice afforded them the luxury of two servants. In the years to come, Thomas Whiteside would serve as an Indiana
state judge and as a member of the Indiana Supreme Court
. Lavina Whiteside was born in Indiana, the daughter of Judge George B. Walker, a native of Maryland
who had settled in Logansport.
, and on the 17th of November made his professional stage debut in Richard III
at Chicago’s Grand Opera House. Walker found the experience both terrifying and exhilarating, but knew immediately he had found his calling.
He spent much of the following decade or so with Shakespearean companies touring primarily America’s Midwest before making his New York
premier in April 1893 at the Union Square Theatre
, playing Hamlet and Edward Bulwer-Lytton
’s Richelieu. By the dawn of the 20th century, and barely into his thirties, Walker had played Hamlet in some 1,400 productions.
In the late 1890s Walker began to swing away from classic production in favor of more contemporary and thus more profitable plays. On the 31st of January, 1901, just fifteen minutes after the final curtain call of Walker’s play Heart and Sword, the Coates Opera House
in Kansas City caught fire and burned to the ground. By the time the fire had spread from the boiler room the building had been evacuated forcing Walker’s company to abandon their theatrical gear to the flames. Later Walker signed with Shipman Brothers in New York performing romantic and classic plays under their banner until he was able to recoup his losses.
Walker’s first Broadway
hit was in 1909 playing David opposite Chrystal Herne and John Blair in Israel Zangwill
’s The Melting Pot. The play ran for 268 performances at the Comedy Theatre on West 41st Street, and nearly as long a few years later, when he reprieved his role at the Queen’s Theatre in London
.
Walker’s performance as Wu Li Chang in the play Mr. Wu was so popular that before the premier of a later play he had his press agent release a statement announcing "Mr. Whiteside wishes it known far and wide that this time he is not acting as a sinister Chinaman, educated at Oxford, who wears poison fingernails." Walker played several Asian characters over his career, some evil, at least one not, that were probably comparable to those portrayed in films made in Hollywood over the first half of the twentieth century. Walker Whiteside also appeared in the film adaptation of The Melting Pot in 1915 and three years later in the spy film, The Belgian.
The remainder of Walker’s career would be a successful combination of performances on the road and on Broadway. For whatever reason, Walker had several plays that had popular runs on the road that he never opened in New York. Until his retirement in 1935, Walker had a large following among Mid-American audiences who considered him one of their own.
. Walker Whiteside married actress Leila Wolston McCord (professionally known as Leila Wolston)), the daughter of John Thomas McCord founder of the Mississippi River Steamship Line, Two years later the couple became the parents of Leila Rosamond, would go on to be a vaudeville performer and a singer with the St. Louis Opera Company.
, a village in the town of Greenburgh, New York
, just a few miles north of New York City. He never recovered from a stroke suffered three years earlier. Leila Whiteside died a little over year later at Hastings-on-Hudson on January 3, 1944, after a short illness. Leila had, as did her husband, taken to the stage at an early age debuting in the play Alabama (1888) at the age of sixteen. She had been a member of Augustine Daly’s stock company for a number of seasons before joining her husband as a co-star in Shakespearean productions throughout much of the 1890s. She retired from the stage after a fifteen year career.
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
, King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
and Shylock
Shylock
Shylock is a fictional character in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.-In the play:In The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is a Jewish moneylender who lends money to his Christian rival, Antonio, setting the security at a pound of Antonio's flesh...
while still in his teens.
Early life
Walker Whiteside was born on March 16, 1869, near the confluence of the WabashWabash River
The Wabash River is a river in the Midwestern United States that flows southwest from northwest Ohio near Fort Recovery across northern Indiana to southern Illinois, where it forms the Illinois-Indiana border before draining into the Ohio River, of which it is the largest northern tributary...
and Eel rivers at Logansport
Logansport, Indiana
Logansport is a city in and the county seat of Cass County, Indiana, United States. The population was 18,396 at the 2010 census. Logansport is located in northern Indiana, at the junction of the Wabash and Eel rivers, northeast of Lafayette.-History:...
in northern Indiana. He was the only child of Thomas C. and Lavina (née Walker) Whiteside. Walker’s family would later move to the Chicago suburb of Riverside
Riverside, Illinois
Riverside is an affluent suburban village in Cook County, Illinois. A significant portion of the village is in the Riverside Landscape Architecture District, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970. The population was 8,895 at the 2000 census...
where his father’s law practice afforded them the luxury of two servants. In the years to come, Thomas Whiteside would serve as an Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
state judge and as a member of the Indiana Supreme Court
Supreme Court of Indiana
The Supreme Court of Indiana is the state supreme court of Indiana. The court was established by Article Seven of the Indiana Constitution and is the highest judicial authority within Indiana...
. Lavina Whiteside was born in Indiana, the daughter of Judge George B. Walker, a native of Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
who had settled in Logansport.
Career
While in his teens or earlier Walker Whiteside attended acting classes under the tutelage of Professor Samuel Kayzer of the Dramatic Conservatory of Chicago. His ability there to play roles that would appear to be beyond his years soon drew local media attention as the boy tragedian of Chicago. In October, 1884, the not yet sixteen year-old actor hired Alderman Ford, a theatrical agent from Kansas CityKansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
, and on the 17th of November made his professional stage debut in Richard III
Richard III (play)
Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
at Chicago’s Grand Opera House. Walker found the experience both terrifying and exhilarating, but knew immediately he had found his calling.
He spent much of the following decade or so with Shakespearean companies touring primarily America’s Midwest before making his 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...
premier in April 1893 at the Union Square Theatre
Union Square Theatre
Union Square Theater is an Off-Broadway theatre, owned by Reading International, who also owns Reading Entertainment.- Productions :*Visiting Mr. Green by Jeff Baron*The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman and the Members of the Tectonic Theater Project...
, playing Hamlet and Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton PC , was an English politician, poet, playwright, and novelist. He was immensely popular with the reading public and wrote a stream of bestselling dime-novels which earned him a considerable fortune...
’s Richelieu. By the dawn of the 20th century, and barely into his thirties, Walker had played Hamlet in some 1,400 productions.
In the late 1890s Walker began to swing away from classic production in favor of more contemporary and thus more profitable plays. On the 31st of January, 1901, just fifteen minutes after the final curtain call of Walker’s play Heart and Sword, the Coates Opera House
Coates Opera House
The Coates Opera House was a prominent performing arts venue and cultural landmark in Kansas City, Missouri from its founding in 1870 to its destruction in a fire in 1901. It was built by Kersey Coates, a local hotelier. The House was the first legitimate theater in Kansas City....
in Kansas City caught fire and burned to the ground. By the time the fire had spread from the boiler room the building had been evacuated forcing Walker’s company to abandon their theatrical gear to the flames. Later Walker signed with Shipman Brothers in New York performing romantic and classic plays under their banner until he was able to recoup his losses.
Walker’s first Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
hit was in 1909 playing David opposite Chrystal Herne and John Blair in Israel Zangwill
Israel Zangwill
Israel Zangwill was a British humorist and writer.-Biography:Zangwill was born in London on January 21, 1864 in a family of Jewish immigrants from Czarist Russia, to Moses Zangwill from what is now Latvia and Ellen Hannah Marks Zangwill from what is now Poland. He dedicated his life to championing...
’s The Melting Pot. The play ran for 268 performances at the Comedy Theatre on West 41st Street, and nearly as long a few years later, when he reprieved his role at the Queen’s Theatre in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Walker’s performance as Wu Li Chang in the play Mr. Wu was so popular that before the premier of a later play he had his press agent release a statement announcing "Mr. Whiteside wishes it known far and wide that this time he is not acting as a sinister Chinaman, educated at Oxford, who wears poison fingernails." Walker played several Asian characters over his career, some evil, at least one not, that were probably comparable to those portrayed in films made in Hollywood over the first half of the twentieth century. Walker Whiteside also appeared in the film adaptation of The Melting Pot in 1915 and three years later in the spy film, The Belgian.
The remainder of Walker’s career would be a successful combination of performances on the road and on Broadway. For whatever reason, Walker had several plays that had popular runs on the road that he never opened in New York. Until his retirement in 1935, Walker had a large following among Mid-American audiences who considered him one of their own.
Family
On October 19, 1893 in Hamilton, OntarioHamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
. Walker Whiteside married actress Leila Wolston McCord (professionally known as Leila Wolston)), the daughter of John Thomas McCord founder of the Mississippi River Steamship Line, Two years later the couple became the parents of Leila Rosamond, would go on to be a vaudeville performer and a singer with the St. Louis Opera Company.
Death
Walker Whiteside died on the 17th of August, 1942, at his family residence in Hastings-on-HudsonHastings-on-Hudson, New York
Hastings-on-Hudson is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is located in the southwest part of the town of Greenburgh. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 7,849. It lies on U.S. Route 9, "Broadway" in Hastings...
, a village in the town of Greenburgh, New York
Greenburgh, New York
Greenburgh is a town in the western part of Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 88,400 at the 2010 census. Paul J. Feiner has been the Town Supervisor since 1991.-History:...
, just a few miles north of New York City. He never recovered from a stroke suffered three years earlier. Leila Whiteside died a little over year later at Hastings-on-Hudson on January 3, 1944, after a short illness. Leila had, as did her husband, taken to the stage at an early age debuting in the play Alabama (1888) at the age of sixteen. She had been a member of Augustine Daly’s stock company for a number of seasons before joining her husband as a co-star in Shakespearean productions throughout much of the 1890s. She retired from the stage after a fifteen year career.
Selected plays
- The Red Cockade (1899) adaptation/actor/producer (adapted from an English translation of Le Lion Amoureux by Francois Ponsard)
- Heart and Sword (ca. 1900) actor/producer/writer
- We Are King (1904) adaptation/actor/producer
- The Magic Melody (1907)
- The Typhoon (1912) actor/producer
- Mr. Wu (1914) actor/director
- The Pawn (1917) actor
- The Little Brother (1918) actor
- The Hindu (1922) actor/producer/writer
- The Arabian (1927) actor
- The Royal Box (1928) actor
- Sakura (1928) actor/producer
- Three Men and a Woman (1932) actor/director
- The Master of Ballantrae (1935) actor