David James (actor)

David James

David James (born David Belasco) (1839 – 3 October 1893 ) was an English comic actor and one of the founders of London's Vaudeville Theatre.

He was born in London to Moses Belasco, a tailor of Sephardic Jewish origin, and Sophia Jacobs. Several members of his family were active in the theatre – his brother was a professional harlequin and his nephew (and namesake) was the playwright and impresario David Belasco.^[1] He made his stage debut as a child actor at the Princess's Theatre, London, then managed by Charles Kean. As a young man. he appeared in various burlesques. One of his best roles during that time was as Mercury in Francis Burnand's Ixion, which he performed in its 1863 premiere at the Royalty Theatre.

In 1870 he joined Henry James Montague and Thomas Thorne as the first managers of the newly opened Vaudeville Theatre where his greatest success was as Perkyn Middlewick in Henry James Byron's Our Boys which opened on 16 January 1875 and ran for over 1300 performances. He left the Vaudeville Theatre in 1881 to work at the Haymarket Theatre, followed by a stint at the Lyceum Theatre. In 1886, he became a member of Charles Wyndham's company at the Criterion Theatre.

Unlike Thomas Thorne, his partner at the Vaudeville who died penniless and insane, David James died leaving a fortune of £41,000 (an enormous sum in those days),^[2] which went to his synagogue and other Jewish charities.^[3]

References

1. ^ Winter 2008, pp. xlii.
2. ^ New York Times (18 January 1914)
3. ^ Hyamson 1951, pp. 397.

Source bibliography

• Hyamson, Albert Montefiore (1951). The Sephardim of England: A history of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community, 1492–1951. Methuen. pp. 397. 
• New York Times, "Fortunes of the Stage", 18 January 1914
• Sherson, Erroll, London's lost theatres of the nineteenth century, Ayer Publishing, 1925, p. 225. ISBN 0-405-08969-4
• Winter, William Jefferson (2008). The Life of David Belasco. I. Read Books. pp. xlii. ISBN 1443703877. http://books.google.co.in/books?id=iEsQeymowXUC&pg=PR42&dq=%22David+James%22+Belasco&as_brr=3. 

External links

• Photograph and brief biography at www.picturehistory.com

Persondata
Name	James, David
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1839
Place of birth
Date of death	3 October 1893
Place of death