KEMBLE
,
CHARLES
(
1775
-
1854
),
actor
;
b.
25 Nov. 1775
at
Brecon
, eleventh child of
Roger
Kemble
and
Sarah
Ward
. The company of
itinerant actors
managed by his parents played on a circuit that is indicated by the birthplaces of their celebrated children:
Sarah
(
Siddons
)
(q.v.)
, b.
Brecon
,
1755
;
JOHN
, b.
Prescott
,
1757
;
STEPHEN
, b.
Kington
,
1758
;
FRANCES
(
Twiss
)
, b.
Hereford
,
1759
;
ELIZABETH
(
WHITLOCK
)
, b.
Warrington
,
1761
;
Julia Ann
(
Hatton
)
(q.v.)
, b.
Worcester
,
1764
.
Sarah
(
Siddons
)
and
John Philip
Kemble
are considered among the greatest players of all time;
Stephen
Kemble
was an able
actor
, and
manager
of the
Edinburgh Theatre Royal
;
Frances
and
Elizabeth
were competent. Of the later children, five died young but
Charles
Kemble
lived to become a well-known
man of the theatre
. Educated, like
John Philip
, at the
English College
at
Douai
, he began
acting
at
Sheffield
in
1792
and made his first
London
appearance on
21 April 1794
as
Malcolm
in
Macbeth
. He was employed until
1802
by
Colman
and thereafter by
John Philip
Kemble
at
Covent Garden
. He m.
2 July 1806
the well-known
actress
,
Marie-Therese de
Camp
, and their three children all achieved distinction. They were
John Mitchell
Kemble
(
1807
-
1857
),
philologist
and
historical writer
;
Adelaide
(
Sartoris
)
, who lived from
1814?
to
1879
and was both
singer
and
writer
;
FRANCES
(
BUTLER
)
was
actress
and
writer
and lived from
1809
to
1893
.
A.
Nicoll
credits
Charles
Kemble
with the
authorship or adaptation of six plays
.
Bibliography:
-
D. E. Baker
,
Biographia Dramatica
, 1812
, i, 421, 423, 428-30 (London,
1812
);
-
Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography
;
-
A. Nicoll
,
A History of Early Nineteenth Century Drama,
1800-1850
, Cambridge, 1930
, ii, 325.
Author:
Cecil John Layton Price, Ph.D. (1915-91), Aberystwyth / Swansea
