27 Facts About Lawrence Barrett

Lawrence Patrick Barrett was an American stage actor.

Lawrence Barrett enlisted for the American Civil War in 1862, but resigned in 1863.

Lawrence Barrett later managed the California Theatre in San Francisco from 1868 to 1870 alongside John McCullough.

Lawrence Barrett performed a variety of roles, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth.

Lawrence Barrett was especially known for his portrayal of Cardinal Richelieu in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's drama.

Lawrence Barrett acted in London on multiple occasions and produced and starred in several plays.

Lawrence Barrett frequently collaborated with fellow stage actor Edwin Booth, touring together and achieving immense success.

Lawrence Barrett's health began to decline in 1890, and he died in 1891 during a performance of Richelieu.

Lawrence Barrett married Mary Frederika Mayer in 1859, and was the grandfather of actress Edith Lawrence Barrett.

Lawrence Barrett's acting style was described as versatile and expressive, but some critics questioned his stage personations.

Lawrence Barrett was raised in Detroit, and made his first stage appearance there in 1853 as Murad in The French Spy.

Lawrence Barrett acted in London in 1867,1882,1883 and 1884, his "Cardinal Richelieu" portrayal in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's drama being considered his best part.

In 1869 Lawrence Barrett partnered with actor John McCullough in the creation of San Francisco's California Theater, leaving his management position within two years, although he became a frequent actor on tour of the West throughout the 1870s and 80s.

Lawrence Barrett was particularly successful in Kansas City, Missouri, where he performed for a week in December 1870 in the inaugural season of the Coates Opera House; he returned 11 times.

Lawrence Barrett was managed for many years by Robert E Stevens, the father of actress Emily Stevens and theater director Robert Stevens.

Lawrence Barrett frequently worked with fellow stage actor Edwin Booth; he played Othello to Booth's Iago and Cassius to his Brutus in Julius Caesar.

Lawrence Barrett wrote a sketch of his colleague for Edwin Booth and his Contemporaries.

Shortly after, Lawrence Barrett contacted Booth and suggested that the two tour together beginning in 1887 season.

Lawrence Barrett asked the curtain to be lowered and called for doctors before telling the audience there would be no performance that night.

Finally, in March 1891, during a performance of Richelieu at the Broadway Theatre, Lawrence Barrett whispered to Booth that he could not go on.

Lawrence Barrett finished the scene before being replaced by his understudy.

Lawrence Barrett was the grandfather of stage and screen actress Edith Barrett, the first wife of Vincent Price.

Lawrence Barrett was a longtime friend of Miss Matoaca Gay; he encouraged her studies of Shakespeare, and even gave readings at Miss Gay's study groups.

Lawrence Barrett was a close friend of George Armstrong Custer and hosted him whenever the cavalry officer visited New York.

In 1872, just four years before Custer and his entire command would be wiped out by a gathering of Plains tribes at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Lawrence Barrett accompanied Custer on a whirlwind buffalo hunt across the Great Plains.

One critic noted Lawrence Barrett had "a well knit form and face capable of expressing sorrow, by the merest movement of a muscle; joy by the kindling of the eye; or rage, by the transport of the entire body".

Lawrence Barrett writes well, talks well, and manages well, but in the judgment of the metropolitan connoisseurs he does not play well.