Plympton, Eben

(1853-1915)

   Born in Boston, Eben Plympton worked as a bookkeeper before migrating to California. He began acting in Stockton, California, in 1871, after which his robust masculinity and confidence won him a place in Lester Wallack's company. A few years' apprenticeship led to leading roles in Rose Michel (1875) and Our Boarding House (1878), and he won plaudits as Romeo in 1877. Plympton scored triumphs in Hazel Kirke (1880) and Esmeralda (1881), after which he starred opposite Mary Anderson and played Laertes to Edwin Booth's Hamlet. Between 1894 and 1914, he appeared in a diverse range of plays, including Cotton King (1894), Gossip (1895), In the Palace of the King (1901), The Hunchback (1902), Romeo and Juliet (1903), The Man from Blan-kley's (1903), London Assurance (1905), The Duel (1906), Divorce (1909), The Garden of Allah (1911), and Twelfth Night (1914).