Ben Iden Payne

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Ben Iden Payne (September 5, 1881 – April 6, 1976) was an English actor, director and teacher. He was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne, and raised educated in Manchester. He started his career as a walk-on actor in 1899. He served as director of the Abbey Theatre for a short time in 1907 and then returned to Manchester to work with Annie Elizabeth Fredericka Horniman. In 1913, he moved to the United States. Apart from the period 1935 to 1942, he spent the rest of his life in the States, working in the theatre and teaching at various colleges including the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh and University of Texas.

The B. Iden Payne Awards, awarded to actors for outstanding contributions to theater in Austin, Texas, are named in his honor. One of the three theaters on campus at the University of Texas in Austin is also named after him.