{{short description|19th-century Anglo-American actor and manager}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}} {{Use British English|date=August 2016}} [[File:Charles Robert Leslie - James William Wallack - 1923.359 - Art Institute of Chicago.jpg|thumb|Portrait by Charles Robert Leslie, 1830s]] '''James William Wallack''' (c. 1794–1864), commonly referred to as '''J. W. Wallack''', was an Anglo-American actor and manager, born in London, and brother of Henry John Wallack.
==Life== [[File:Lester Wallack und James Wallack - Schauspieler.jpg|thumb|upright|Lester Wallack (left) and James W. Wallack. The boy is Charles E. Wallack, Lester's son and James's grandson. Photo by Rockwood.]] Wallack's father was named William Wallack and his sister was named Elizabeth.<ref name=Leonora/> His parents were comedians, who performed at the London minor playhouses and in the British provinces. His first appearance on the stage was as a child at the Surrey Theatre in London. Soon afterward he performed in juvenile characters at Drury Lane, and at the age of eighteen entered on a permanent career at the same house as Laertes in ''Hamlet''. He also acted in the British provinces and in Ireland, gradually winning his way to popularity as a useful representative of drama and comedy. In 1823 he played Victor Frankenstein in ''Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein'' at the English Opera House. In 1824, Wallack became stage manager at Drury Lane, and rose to the performance of secondary roles in tragedy. Later he played at the Haymarket Theatre, and officiated as stage manager at the Princess's Theatre.{{sfn|Weidemeyer|1900|pp=336–337}}{{sfn |New York Herald |1852-09-02}}
On the occasion of his first visit to the United States, in 1818, he played Macbeth at the Park Theatre, New York. He also played Romeo, Shylock, Coriolanus, Hamlet, and Richard III, all without making any favorable impression. But in the principal roles in ''The Stranger'', ''Pizarro'' and ''The Gamester'' he closely copied the manner of Kemble and attracted favorable consideration. From 1818 until 1845 Wallack performed at intervals in all the principal cities of the United States. Among his roles were the chief characters in ''The Brigand'', ''The Rent-Day'', ''The Wonder'', ''Don Cassar de Bazan'', ''Wild Oats'' and the refined comedy parts of Mercutio, Jaques, and Benedick. ''Love's Ritornello'', as sung by him in ''The Brigand'', was hummed from one end of the country to the other.{{sfn|Weidemeyer|1900|pp=336–337}}{{sfn |New York Herald |1852-09-02}}
In 1822 Wallack met with an accident, in which his leg was fractured by the overturning of a stagecoach between New York and Philadelphia. This mishap retired him from active life for about eighteen months, and from its effect he never entirely recovered. From 1837 until its destruction by fire, Wallack conducted the New York National Theatre.{{sfn|Brown|1902|pp=23-24, 36, 47 (on the Park Theatre) and 243f (on the National Theatre)}} There he presented a repertory of the best plays in the English language, rendered by a company such as never before had been seen in this country.{{sfn|Weidemeyer|1900|pp=336–337}}{{sfn |New York Herald |1852-09-02}}
He settled permanently in New York City in 1852.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=279}} In that year, he assumed management of an 1850 theatre two doors south of Broome Street on the west side of Broadway, called Brougham's Lyceum, renaming it Wallack's Lyceum.{{sfn|Weidemeyer|1900|pp=336–337}}{{sfn |New York Herald |1852-09-02}} In 1861 he built a new Wallack's Theatre at 13th Street and Broadway.{{sfn|Weidemeyer|1900|pp=336–337}}{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=279}} His son opened the third Wallack's Theatre in 1882.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=279}}
Wallack was an actor of the old school. Thackeray praised his performance as Shylock, and Joseph Jefferson his Don Caesar de Bazan.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=279}} As a performer he was endowed with a fine personality; his voice was highly melodious, set off by flexibility and careful elocution, and his knowledge of stage-effect was unexcelled. In refined and eccentric comedy Wallack had few superiors. Some of his roles in the romantic dramas of his own creation were entirely unequalled, and have died with him.{{sfn|Weidemeyer|1900|pp=336–337}}
==Family== [[File:Mrs James W Wallack, by Henry Inman.jpg|thumb|''Mrs. James W. Wallack'' by Henry Inman, circa 1828]] thumb|Poster of Wallack playing the part of 'Gloster', c.1850 thumb|1819 playbill for the first performance in Boston, Massachusetts of the play King Richard II at the Federal Street Theater Wallack married Susan Johnstone, a comic actress and the daughter of John Henry Johnstone, in 1817; she died in 1851.<ref name="lacma">{{cite web |title=Portrait of Mrs. James W. Wallack [catalog entry] |url=https://collections.lacma.org/node/250204 |website=LACMA Collections |publisher=LACMA |access-date=1 August 2018}}</ref> Together, the Wallacks had four sons.<ref name="lacma" /> The eldest, Lester Wallack, was also a famous actor and theater manager.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=279}} Wallack's sister, Elizabeth had a daughter, Leonora Pincott, who married Alfred Wigan was a noted actor.<ref name=Leonora>{{Cite ODNB|title=Wigan, Leonora [known as Mrs Alfred Wigan] (1805–1884)|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-29366|access-date=2020-08-17|year=2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/29366}}</ref>
==Notes== {{reflist|2}}
==References== *{{cite book |last=Brown |first=Thomas Allston |year=1902 |title=A History of the New York Stage from the First Performance in 1732 to 1901 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CDALAAAAIAAJ |publisher=Dodd, Mead |volume=i |pages=23–24, 36, 47 (on the Park Theatre) and 243f (on the National Theatre) }} *{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Wallack, James William |volume=28 |page=279}} *{{cite Appletons' |last=Weidemeyer |first=John William |wstitle=Wallack, James William |volume=6 |pages=336–337 |year=1900}} *{{cite news |url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1852-09-02/ed-1/seq-7/ |newspaper=The New York Herald |title=Opening of the Lyceum Theatre—J. W. Wallack, Esq. |date=September 2, 1852 |ref={{sfnref |New York Herald |1852-09-02}} |at=Column 4}}
==Further reading== *Ireland, Joseph N. [https://books.google.com/books?id{{=}}oj87AQAAIAAJ ''Records of the New York Stage from 1750 to 1860'', volume i.] (T. H. Morrell, New York, 1867), pp. 341f and 396f. *[https://archive.org/stream/gleasonspictoria03glea#page/344/mode/1up "James W. Wallack,"] ''Gleason’s Pictorial Drawing Room Companion,'' Vol. 3 No. 22 (27 November 1852) p. 344 *Knight, John Joseph "Wallack, James William" in Lee, Sidney (ed.) ''Dictionary of National Biography'' volume lix (London: Smith, Elder, & Co.; 1899) p. 117f. [https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati59stepuoft#page/n9/mode/2up Also online at Internet Archive.] *[https://books.google.com/books?id{{=}}NGFqQgAACAAJ ''A Sketch of the Life of James William Wallack: (senior,) Late Actor and Manager''] [compiled by the publisher] (T. H. Morrell, New York, 1865) described in [https://books.google.com/books?id{{=}}ldEUAAAAYAAJ ''Bibliotheca dramatica et curiosa,''] p. 362 *Wallack, Lester and Hutton, Laurence [https://books.google.com/books?id{{=}}EQ4OAAAAYAAJ ''Memories of Fifty Years.''] (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1889) *Winter, William, ''The Wallet of Time'', volume i. (Moffat, Yard and Company, New York, 1913)
==External links== {{Commons category inline|James William Wallack}} *[https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadID=01434 Theater Arts Manuscripts:] An Inventory of the Collection at the Harry Ransom Center
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallack, James William}} Category:19th-century English male actors Category:19th-century British male actors
Category:American actor-managers Category:British emigrants to the United States Category:1794 births Category:1864 deaths