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FDU PRESS
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| Walter Hampden: Dean of the American Theatre |
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Author - Geddeth Smith
Publication Date - November 2008
Number of Pages - 430
ISBN #9780838641668
Contents
Price $45.00 - Price subject to change
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| Description |
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This is the first full-length biography of the distinguished actor-manager Walter Hampden (1879-1955). Most of the sources are from hitherto unpublished documents in the Walter Hampden Collection of the Hampden-Booth Library at the Players Club and from the author's extensive interviews with Walter Hampden's son Paul. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Hampden began his career in England as an apprentice with the Frank Benson Company. He appeared prominently in the West End in London, returned home to America, and with his brilliant successes as "Hamlet" and "Cyrano on Broadway" emerged as a major artist. He established his own theater in New York, and his career on stage lastedfor more than half a century. Late in life he also became a prominent actor on radio, television, and films. This biography includes illustrations from all periods of his life and a chronology of his roles in all media.
ADVANCE PRAISE
"Geddeth Smith's biography of Walter Hampden is a long overdue celebration of a great actor; it captures, and sets vividly in his time, a man whose performances I have venerated since childhood. I am grateful that his life has been so handsomely remembered."
Fritz Weaver, actor
"Geddeth Smith has written a great page turner! I loved it! I couldn't put it down. I couldn't wait to see what happened next. For anyone interested in the Theatre--with a capital 'T'--and the life and times of a great American actor-manager, this is a must."
Rosemary Harris, actress
"Smith chronicles the rich details of Hampden's life and career in a fluent, reader-friendly, almost anecdotal flow of cogent narrative. It is an engaging chronicle of a fascinating man of the theatre."
Paul Nelsen, Professor Theatre and Drama, Marlboro College
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| Author/Editor Biographies |
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| Geddeth Smith is the author of two biographies of nineteenth-century actors, The Brief Career of Eliza Poe (FDUP, 1988) and Thomas Abthrope Cooper, America's Premier Tragedian (FDUP, 1997). During his fifty years as an actor, he has appeared in a wide variety of roles on Broadway, Off-Broadway, on the road, on national television, and in many resident theatres across the country. |
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