John Lawrence Toole
J. L. Toole | |
---|---|
Born | John Lawrence Toole 12 March 1830 St Mary Axe, City of London, England |
Died | 30 July 1906 Brighton, Sussex, England | (aged 74)
Years active | 1852–1893 |
John Lawrence (J. L.) Toole (12 March 1830 – 30 July 1906) was an English comic actor, actor-manager and theatrical producer. He was famous for his roles in farce and in serio-comic melodramas, in a career that spanned more than four decades, and the first actor to have a West End theatre named after him.
Life and career
Toole was born in
He was educated at the City of London School from 1841 to 1845, and started work as a clerk in a wine merchant's office.[3] In 1854, Toole married Susan Hale (née Caslake), a widow five years older than he. They had a son, Frank Lawrence, and a daughter, Florence Mabel, but both children died in their 20s.[4]
Early career
Toole began his acting career by training as an amateur with the City Histrionic Club, beginning in 1850 and by performing in other amateur theatricals and in comic sketches. He earned good notices, particularly as Jacob Earwig in Boots at the Swan, and soon met
In 1854,
Peak years
In 1858, at the suggestion of Dickens,
Toole was then engaged in 1868 at the Gaiety Theatre by Hollingshead, appearing in many pieces there including Thespis (1871), the first Gilbert and Sullivan collaboration, and as John Lockwood, in a drama called Wait and Hope.[10] In 1872–74, among other successes, he portrayed Tom Larkin in Good News by H. J. Byron,[19] the Irishman Brulgruddery in John Bull by George Colman the Younger; Bob Acres in The Rivals by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, together with Charles James Mathews and Samuel Phelps; the title role in a Robert Reece burlesque called Don Giovanni in Venice; another title role in Guy Fawkes by H. J. Byron, and created the role of the barrister Hammond Coote in Wig and Gown by James Albery.[1][20] Toole's fame was at its height in 1874, when he went on tour to America, but he failed to reproduce there the success he had found in England.[3] He remained based mostly at the Gaiety until the end of 1877, when he moved to the Globe Theatre under his own management for two years.[21]
In 1878, Toole created the role of Charles Liquorpond in A Fool and his Money by
"Mr. J. L. Toole... is associated in the minds of the general public mainly with parts provoking to uproarious laughter; but it may fairly be questioned whether, like his predecessor in this also, his heart does not lie with, and he himself is not seen to more advantage in, the telling sketches from everyday life to which, for want of a better, we give the name of domestic drama. Anything more lifelike than the intensity of cold and hunger from which he may be almost said to suffer, in the garret-scene, as Michael Garner it would be difficult to conceive."[22]
Later years
In 1879, Toole realised a lifelong ambition by taking over the management of the Folly Theatre in London. He renovated the building and renamed it Toole's Theatre in 1881, becoming the first actor to have a West End theatre named after him.[1] He was often away in the British provinces, but he produced a number of plays in London:
- H. J. Byron's A Fool and His Money (1879)[23]
- Arthur Wing Pinero's Hester's Mystery (1880)
- Byron's Upper Crust (1880) and Auntie (1882)[24][25]
- A. W. Pinero's Girls and Boys: a Nursery Tale (1882) starring Toole as Solomon Prothero[26]
- F. C. Burnand's Stage Dora; or, Who Killed Cock Robin (1883), a burlesque of Sardou's Fédora, starring Toole
- Burnand's Paw Claudian (1884), a burlesque of the 1883 costume (Byzantine) drama 'Claudian' by Henry Herman and W. G. Wills
- Pinero's Girls and Boys (1885)
- Mr. Guffin's Elopement and The Great Tay-Kin, both with words by Arthur Law and music by George Grossmith, starring Toole (1885)[27][28]
- A revival of Billee Taylor (1886)
- The Butler, by Herman Charles Merivale, starring Toole (1886)
- Pepita, an operetta by Charles Lecocq (1888)
- The Don, by Merivale, starring Toole (1888).[29]
- The Bungalow, by Fred Horner (1890)[30]
- J. M. Barrie's Ibsen's Ghost, or, Toole up to Date, a one-act satire on London productions of Ibsen, including Hedda Gabler, starring Irene Vanbrugh and Toole (1891)
- Barrie's Walker, London, a highly successful farce, directed by Toole (1892)[31]
By the 1880s Toole suffered frequently from gout, which made it difficult for him to walk and affected his ability to perform.[1] His health declined further following a string of family tragedies that left him disconsolate: his son died in 1879 after a football injury, his daughter in 1888 of typhoid fever, and his wife three months later in 1889.[4][1] By this time, his acting had become unfashionable: he began to be seen as the last of the line of old-fashioned low comic actors who had been popular earlier in the century, including Buckstone, John Liston and Edward Richard Wright.[1] Nevertheless, he toured Australia and New Zealand in 1890.[5] He published his reminiscences in 1888, and his stage appearances gradually became fewer. After an 1893 illness during Thoroughbred by Ralph Lumley, he retired from the London stage, although he made occasional appearances in the provinces until about 1896. His theatre was demolished in 1895 for an extension of Charing Cross Hospital, and he dissolved his theatre company after an 1896 tour.
The critic Clement Scott called Toole "one of the kindest and most genial men who ever drew breath. ... No one acted with more spirit or enjoyed so thoroughly the mere pleasure of acting."[11] His genial and sympathetic nature was conspicuous off the stage as well as on it, and he was known as a great practical joker.[1]
Ultimately he retired to Brighton, where, after a long struggle with Bright's disease and a degenerative spinal illness, he died in 1906 at the age of 76. He is buried at Kensal Green Cemetery in London, next to his wife and children. Toole was a good businessman and left a considerable fortune of over £81,000, out of which he made a number of bequests to charity, to needy actors and to his friends.[1]
See also
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Read, Michael. "Toole, John Lawrence (1830–1906)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), Oxford University Press online edn, 2008, accessed 9 June 2008 (requires subscription)
- ^ a b "John Lawrence Toole Papers" – 1850-1907, University of Rochester libraries
- ^ a b c d e public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Toole, John Lawrence". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 47. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the
- ^ a b Clipping about the death of Toole's son in 1879 Archived 3 July 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c d e Obituary, The Times, 31 July 1906, p. 5
- ^ Bayly, Thomas H. The Spitalfields Weaver.
- ^ "Toole's Theatre, King William IV Street, Strand, London". Arthur Lloyd. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
- ^ Theatre Programme/Poster: Theatre Royal Hay-Market, 22 July 1852, benefit for Frederick Webster. "Mr J. L. Toole (His First Appearance on any Stage)".
- ^ Pollock, W. H. (1886). "MR. J. L. TOOLE". In Matthews, Brander; Hutton, Laurence (eds.). Actors and Actresses of Great Britain and the United States. NY: Cassell & Co. pp. 267–271.
- ^ a b c d e Waddy, Frederick. Cartoon Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Men of the Day, pp. 22–24, Tinsley Brothers: London (1873), accessed 2 January 2011
- ^ a b c Toole's Theatre-Polygraphic Hall-Charing Cross Theatre-The Folly (Arthur Lloyd) accessed 11 October 2007
- ^ Williams, Thomas John (1889). Ici on parle français. New York, H. Roorbach.
- ^ The Adelphi Theatre Calendar 1859–60 (2013), accessed 27 March 2015
- ^ Adams, p. 85
- ^ Adams, passim
- ^ Adams, p. 572
- ^ Adams, p. 72
- ^ Adams, p. 496
- ^ Adams, p. 595
- ^ Adams, pp. 411 and 621
- ^ Hollingshead, John. Good Old Gaiety (1903) London, p. 39
- ^ The Times, 27 December 1871
- ^ MacMichael, J. Holden. The Story of Charing Cross and Its Immediate Neighbourhood (1906) Chatto & Windus, accessed 12 October 2007
- ^ The Upper Crust and Auntie. The New York Times, 26 April 1880, accessed 11 October 2007
- ^ Adams, p. 92
- ^ Adams, p. 582
- ^ Grossmith, George (1888). A Society Clown: Reminiscences. Bristol/London: Arrowsmith. Chapter 8 Available online here Archived 17 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Adams, p. 606
- ^ Adams, p. 410
- ^ Notices and posters for Toole's Theatre pieces[permanent dead link]
- ^ Peter Pan exhibition site Archived 20 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine
References
- Adams, William Davenport. A Dictionary of the Drama (1904) Chatto & Windus, London
Further reading
- Forster, J. The life of Charles Dickens, 3 vols. (1872–4)
- Foulkes, R. (ed.) British theatre in the 1890s (1992)
- Goddard, A. Players of the period, 2 vols. (1891)
- Hollingshead, John. Gaiety Chronicles (1898)
- Irving, L. Henry Irving: the actor and his world (1951)
- Pascoe, C. E. (ed.) The dramatic list, 2nd edn (1880)
- Toole, John Lawrence and Joseph Hatton. Reminiscences of J. L. Toole (1889) Hurst and Blackett, Ltd. (2 vols.)
- Vanbrugh, I. To tell my story (1948)
- Wilman, George (1882), "J. L. Toole", Sketches of living celebrities, London: Griffith and Farran, pp. 15–24
External links
- A blog focusing on the life of J.L. Toole
- Photos and other images of Toole
- Anonymous (1873). Cartoon portraits and biographical sketches of men of the day. Illustrated by Frederick Waddy. London: Tinsley Brothers. pp. 22–24. Retrieved 3 January 2011.