Walter Hampden

Walter Hampden was one of the great American stage actors and the only performer, aside from Maurice Evans, to play Hamlet three times on Broadway in the post-World War I-era. Born Walter Hampden Dougherty on June 30, 1879, in Brooklyn, New York, he learned his craft in London, where he made his debut as a professional actor in 1901 with the Frank Benson Stock Company. He spent six years apprenticing in England, where he was thoroughly trained as a classical actor.

When he returned to the US in 1907, he toured with the great Russian actress Alla Nazimova in a presentation of the plays of Henrik Ibsen.

Hampden played "Hamlet" on Broadway in 1918-1919, in 1925 (with Ethel Barrymore as his Ophelia at his own Hampden's Theatre), and in 1934.

From 1922, when John Barrymore staged his first Hamlet, until 1975, when Sam Waterston assayed the role, Barrymore and Hampden were the only American actors to play Hamlet on Broadway. Hampden played the role three times on the Great White Way: in 1918, 1925 and 1929. Stephen Lang, who played the Dane in 1992, is the only other American in more than three-quarters of a century to star in "Hamlet" on Broadway. In that time, Hamlet was dominated by British performers, particularly Maurice Evans, an English immigrant who became an American citizen, who was the only other man since World War One to play Hamlet three times on the Broadway stage. The other British subjects to play the role on Broadway in that period were Sir John Gielgud (considered by many to be THE Hamlet of the 20th century), Leslie Howard, Sir Donald Wolfit, future Canadian Stratford Festival founder John Neville, Richard Burton, Nicol Williamson (considered by some to be the definitive portrayal of the late 1960s) and Ralph Fiennes, who won a Tony in the role. The Frenchman Jean-Louis Barrault followed in his countrywoman Sarah Bernhardt's steps and played Hamlet on Broadway, he in 1952, she in 1900. Aside from Barrymore's acclaimed performance, the greatest Hamlet assayed by an American actor was that of Edwin Booth, who played the role three times on Broadway in the 19th century.

His greatest role was that of Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac," a part he first performed in 1923 and that he repeated four more times on the Great White Way.

In 1925 he took over management of the Colonial Theatre, a vaudeville house on Upper Broadway, and renamed it Hampden's Theatre.

After christening his house with his second Hamlet on October 10, 1925, he played there with his own company through 1930. Later, Hampden helped launch the American Repertory Theatre, playing Cardinal Wolsey in William Shakespeare's "Henry VIII. "Hampden became revered as the grand old man of the American theater. He was president of the Players' Club for 27 years. His last distinguished role on Broadway was in Arthur Millers parable of McCarthyism, "The Crucible," capping a career that spanned a half-century.

He coached Ronald Colman in the scenes from "Othello" that Colman played in A Double Life (1947).

In 1949, made his TV debut at the age of 69 - as Macbeth!

Cedric Hardwicke, who played Hampden's chief advisor in The Vagabond King (1956), played his evil brother Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939).

Brian Hooker's translation of Cyrano de Bergerac was prepared for Hampden. The next major English language translation was by Anthony Burgess, and was prepared for Christopher Plummer who, like Hampden, had previously played Hamlet. This translation has Cyrano make a reference to Hamlet, his list of insults to his own nose climaxing with "and finally, with tragic cries and sighs, in language finely wrought and deeply felt, 'Oh, that this too, too solid nose would melt.'" This translation has since been performed by Derek Jacobi, Kenneth Branagh, and Kevin Kline, all of whom have also played Hamlet. Subsequent cinematic Cyrano Gérard Depardieu also appeared in Branagh's film Hamlet (1996).