Dixey, Henry E.

(1859-1943)

   Although largely associated with the musicals, Dixey (born Henry E. Dixon in Boston) also starred in a number of legitimate plays. He made his debut in Under the Gaslight in Boston when he was nine. For his adult debut in 1874, he played eight roles (including half of a dancing cow) in the burlesque Evangeline. He was long associated with the title role in Adonis (1884), as he cut such a handsome figure in the form-revealing costume. His major roles on the legitimate stage included David Garrick in Oliver Goldsmith (1900), Marquis of Steyne in Becky Sharp and Peter Swallow in Mrs. Bumpstead-Leigh (both 1911, with Minnie Maddern Fiske), Malvolio in Twelfth Night (1914), Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1916), Sir Benjamin Backbite in The School for Scandal (1923), and many others. In 1909, he married Marie Nordstrom, with whom he starred in Mary Jane's Pa (1908).