Sothern, E. H.

(1859-1933)

   Born Edward Hugh Sothern in New Orleans, the son of actor E. A. Sothern, he was educated in England with hopes of becoming a painter. He chose acting instead and debuted in his father's 1879 production, Brother Sam. After touring with John McCullough, Sothern joined Daniel Frohman's Lyceum Theatre company for 10 years, scoring successes in The Highest Bidder (1887), Lord Chumley (1888), The Dancing Girl (1891), A Way to Win a Woman (1894), and The Prisoner of Zenda (1895). Following marriage to Virginia Harned, Sothern left Frohman in 1898 and starred for many years in Shakespearean productions, beginning with a 1900 staging of Hamlet. He began costarring with Julia Marlowe in 1904 in Romeo and Juliet, followed by innumerable Shakespeare productions and tours as "Sothern and Marlowe," playing both comedies and tragedies: Much Ado About Nothing (1904), The Merchant of Venice (1905), Twelfth Night (1905), The Taming of the Shrew (1905), Antony and Cleopatra (1909), As You Like It (1910), Macbeth (1910), and Cymbeline (1923). They married in 1911. His non-Shakespearean productions after 1900 included If I Were King (1901), John the Baptist (1907), Don Quixote (1908), and revivals of several 19th-century plays. When Marlowe retired in 1924, Sothern acted for a few more years before retiring in 1927. Contemporary critics remarked on his comparatively natural acting, but Sothern's romanticized style had fallen out of favor by the time he retired.