William Henry Crane

Crane, William H[enry] (1845–1928), actor. A native of Leicester, Massachusetts, he made his debut in 1863 as the Notary in The Daughter of the Regiment in Harriet Holman's touring company, with which he remained for eight seasons. He then played low comedian roles with the Alice Oates Light Opera. In 1874 Crane created the role of Le Blanc, another Notary, in the original Evangeline. Three years later he was first teamed with Stuart ROBSON [né Henry Robson Stuart] (1836–1903). Robson was born in Annapolis and made his acting debut in Baltimore in 1852. The comic actor performed with Laura Keene's company in New York, with Mrs. Drew at the Arch Street Theatre in Philadelphia, and with William Warren in Boston before his celebrated partnership with Crane that would survive until 1889. Their initial success was as the quarreling neighbors in Our Boarding House (1877), followed by The Comedy of Errors (1878, revived 1885), Our Bachelors (1878), Sharps and Flats (1880), Twelfth Night (1881), My Mother‐in‐Law (1884), and their biggest success, The Henrietta (1887). After the team split, Crane continued to act until 1917. Among his most notable later roles were the manipulative, but sympathetic Hannibal Rivers in The Senator (1890), the seemingly innocent W. Farragut Gurney in For Money (1892), and the likable horse‐trader David Harum (1900). Robson continued to appear in some of his old roles, as well as in such vehicles as The Meddler (1898) and The Gadfly (1899). In the latter he was praised for his “wooden countenance, his staccato utterance, and his long familiar squeak.” In an age when many a clergyman regularly railed at theatre people, Robson took pleasure in maintaining a scrapbook filled with published accounts of erring ministers. Autobiography (Crane): Footprints and Echoes, 1927.

William Henry Crane

William Henry Crane (1845-1928), American actor, was born on 30 April 1845, in Leicester, Massachusetts, and made his first appearance at Utica, New York, in Donizetti's Daughter of the Regiment in 1863. Later he had a great success as Le Blanc the Notary, in the burlesque Evangelie (1873). He made his first hit in the legitimate drama with Stuart Robson (1836-1903), in The Comedy of Errors and other Shakespearian plays, and in The Henrietta (1881) by Bronson Howard (1842-1908). This partnership lasted for twelve years, and subsequently Crane appeared in various eccentric character parts in such plays as The Senator and David Harum. In 1904 he turned to more serious work and played Isidore Izard in Business is business, an adaptation from Octave Mirbeau's Les Affaires sont les Affaires.

In his 70s, Crane appeared in a number of films, notably in a reprise of his role in David Harum (1915). He also appeared in MGM's Three Wise Fools, a film recently revived on Turner Classic Movies and is available on home video/dvd. He died 7 March 1928 at the Hotel Hollywood.

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

External links

• Broadway Credits at the Internet Broadway Database here.

• Film Credits at the Internet Movie Database here.

• "W. H. Crane" by Joseph Howard, Jr. in Famous American Actors of To-day, edited by Frederic Edward McKay and Charles E. L. Wingate, New York, Thomas Y. Crowell & Company, 1896. Online here.

• "William H. Crane", Chapter XI in Famous Actors of the Day in America by Lewis C. Strang, Boston, L. C. Page and Company, 1900. Online here.

• "Crane-Robson" in Some Players: Personal Sketches by Amy Leslie, Herbert S. Stone & Company, Chicago & New York, 1901. Online here.

• "William H. Crane, A Study", By Edwin F. Edgett in Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, January 1903 (Volume LV No. 3). Online here. (Illustration here).

• Obituary in the New York Times, March 8, 1928, page 25, online here.

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