George Vandenhoff
George Vandenhoff (18 February 1820 - 16 June 1885) was an English actor who performed in Britain and the United States.
He was born in 1820 in England, a son of the well-known English actor John Vandenhoff. He debuted in Rule a Wife and Have a Wife at the Covent Garden Theatre on 14 October 1839. He came to the United States in 1842, debuting in a performance as Hamlet. and appeared in productions in New York. He married American actress Mary E. Makeah in Boston in 1855. After leaving acting, he began practicing as a lawyer (in which profession he had previously been trained) by 1858.[1]
He also authored books about performing and reading in public. Well known for his skills in public speaking, in 1869, Vandenhoff was lured by author Charles Reade to read a large portion of his 1866 novel Griffith Gaunt to the jury in a defamation trial.[2][3][4]
He died in Brighton, England, in June 1885.[5]
Selected works
- The Clay Code, or Text-Book of Eloquence (1844)
- A Plain System of Elocution (1845)
- Dramatic Reminiscences, or Actors and Actresses in England and America (1860)
- Leaves from an Actor's Note-Book (1860)
- The Clerical Assistant, or Elocutionary Guide (1862)
- A Lady's Reader, with Rules for Reading Aloud (1862)
- The art of elocution (1862)
- The art of reading aloud (1878)
References
- ↑ George Vandenhoff, Strangers to us All: Lawyers and Poetry], Retrieved 1 March 2017
- ↑ Hudson, Frederic. Journalism in the United States, from 1690-1872 pp. 748-49 (1873)
- ↑ Etc., The Overland Monthly, p. 387 (April 1869) (humorous commentary on Vandenhoff's role at the trial)
- ↑ (27 February 1869). "Griffith Gaunt" in court; Charles Reade's action for libel against the editors of the Round Table - the trial commenced, The New York Times
- ↑ George Vandenhoff, American National Biography Online, Retrieved 1 March 2017