RICHARD MANFIELD

Richard Mansfield was born on May 24 1857 in Berlin. His mother was Madame Rudersdorff the singer, and his father, Maurice Mansfield, a London wine merchant. He first appearance on the stage was at St Georges Hall, London, He preformed opera, playing the Major-General in The Pirates of Penzance, and the Lord High Executioner in The Mikado. In 1883 he moved to America where he joined AM. Palmers Union Square theatre company in New York, and was successful as Baron Chevrial in A Parisian Romance. He produced the play Richard III at the Globe Theatre. Among his other chief successes were Prince Karl, Cyrano de Bergerac and Monsieur Beaucaire. He produced G. Bernard Shaws plays in America, appearing in 1894 as Bluntschli in Arms and the Man, and as Dick Dudgeon in The Devils Disciple in 1897. As a manager and producer of plays Mansfield was known for his lavish staging. He died at the age of fifty in New London, Connecticut, of cancer on August 30, 1907.