Charles Warner
Charles John Warner was an English stage actor whose career of over forty years spanned the Victorian and Edwardian eras. Warner performed in a variety of styles, from Shakespeare's plays to comedies, but he was best known for his dramatic roles and the emotional intensity of his performances. His most famous character was the alcoholic 'Coupeau' in Charles Reade's melodrama Drink, a part that the actor performed many times during his career. Warner performed in the principal theatres in London during the period 1864 to 1887. He had a successful tour of Australia and New Zealand from December 1887 to June 1890, after which he returned to England. In 1906 Warner travelled to New York where he appeared on stage in several productions. In February 1909 he committed suicide in his Manhattan hotel room.
Biography
Early years
Charles John Lickfold was born on 10 October 1846 in the central London district of Kensington, the third child of James Lickfold and Hannah. His father worked as a straw-hat maker and seller. Lickfold was educated at Westbury College in the north London suburb of Highgate.Lickfold made his first appearance on the stage in 1861, aged fifteen, at a special performance at Windsor Castle before Queen Victoria, performing as a page in Edward Bulwer-Lytton's historical drama, Richelieu.
Lickfold worked briefly in the office of his uncle, an architect. In 1863, aged seventeen, he left that employment and his home, determined to pursue a theatrical career. Lickford had secured a position as a "utilitarian" actor in a theatre company under the management of James Rogers, based in the provincial town of Hanley in Staffordshire. When he left home Lickfold was accompanied by his sister, "who had got wind of my intention and insisted on going with me". The company of actors worked "the Hanley, Leicester, Lichfield, and Worcester circuit", performing dramas such as The Castle Spectre and The Mysteries of Paris. Lickfold remained with the company for just under a year, playing two parts a night in a constant turn-over of productions. He later remarked: "It was there that I really learned my profession, the continual change of plays ensuring versalitity".
In 1864 Lickfold briefly joined Henry Nye Chart's company in Brighton. Soon afterwards, however, he was offered the opportunity to appear on the stage in London.
The London stage
At some point early in his career Lickfold adopted the stage name of 'Charles Warner', the name by which he was known for the rest of his life. In 1864 Warner made his debut on the London stage as 'Benvolio' in Romeo and Juliet at the Princess' Theatre in Oxford street.In 1866 Warner was engaged for a three-year period by F. B. Chatterton at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane in London, performing in Shakesperean revivals with Samuel Phelps. It was Phelps that became the young actor's mentor; as Warner later stated: "the late Samuel Phelps... really took me in hand, and helped me to achieve the position which I now hold".
Charles Lickfold and Fanny Hards were married on 17 December 1866 in the parish church at Hampstead. The couple had two children, Grace and Henry. Both children followed their father's profession as actors.
In about 1870 Charles Warner joined the company at the Olympic Theatre in Drury Lane. His roles there included 'Charley Burridge' in H. J. Byron's Daisy Farm.
From 1872 Warner joined the company at the Lyceum Theatre, then under the management of H. L. Bateman, where he remained for two years. At the Lyceum he succeeded Henry Irving in the role of 'Alfred Jingle' in Pickwick. Amongst his other roles at the Lyceum, Warner also played the role of 'Orpheus' in Euripides' Medea.
In about 1874 Warner joined the company of the Vaudeville Theatre in London's West End and "attracted favorable notice there by his painstaking acting in various parts". His roles at the Vaudeville included 'Mr. Puff' in a revival of The Critic by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, 'Charles Surface' in Sheridan's The School for Scandal and 'Harry Dornton' in Thomas Holcroft's The Road to Ruin. In 1875 Charles Warner played the part of 'Charles Middlewick' for 700 nights in the highly successful comedy, H. J. Byron's Our Boys. At the Vaudeville he also appeared in Boucicault's Old Heads and Young Hearts and as 'Charles Courtley' in London Assurance.
Warner then went to the Haymarket Theatre Royal for a year, playing in leading roles opposite Adelaide Neilson.
In 1878 Warner was engaged at the Princess' Theatre by Walter Gooch, where he opened as 'Tom Robinson' in a revival of Charles Reade's It's Never Too Late to Mend, a production which played "for nearly 300 nights". He also appeared as 'Henry Shore' in the drama, Jane Shore by W. G. Wills.
''Drink''
It was Warner's role as "Coupeau" in Charles Reade's Drink that "made his reputation as a great melodramatic actor". Drink was a play based on Émile Zola's novel, L'Assommoir, and adapted by Reade from the French play of the same name as Zola's novel. Drink premiered at the Princess' Theatre on 2 June 1879. The drama was described as being mounted "with all the scenery and surprising effects" that characterised the production of the original French play at the Théâtre de l'Ambigu-Comique in Paris.Warner's role involved a "realistic presentment of the death of the wretched Coupeau from delirium tremens". He studied the causes and symptoms of the condition, "so that no element of reality should be wanting" in his performance. One London newspaper described that section of the play as "the most terrible scene ever presented on the English stage". In 1909 after Warner's suicide in New York the actor Gordon Bailey, who had played alongside him in Drink, "stated that after the performance Mr. Warner was completely broken up, and that the passion and violence he put into his acting was enough to unhinge any brain". It was said that the final scene in Drink was so "exceedingly exacting" for the actor that Warner "would totter off the stage to his dressing-room, trembling, shaken as by a palsy, and bathed in perspiration".
Warner played the role of Coupeau at the Princess' Theatre "for a year and three months without cessation". He later played it in revivals in London at the Adelphi, Princess' and Surrey theatres, and the Standard Theatre in Shoreditch. At the Standard the play averaged £1,200 a week for seven weeks "at cheap prices... not even the pantomime there ever realised such a sum".
At the time of his death in 1909 it was estimated that Warner had performed the role of Coupeau in Drink "about 3,000 times" in various parts of the world. By the time of his extended tour of Australia and New Zealand in the late 1880s, during which the actor performed the role of Coupeau on many occasions, there was a standing joke that 'Warner had taken to Drink again'.
Sadler's Wells Theatre
In 1880 Walter Gooch offered Warner a three-year engagement at the Princess' Theatre when it re-opened after a complete rebuild. At about the same time the renowned American Shakespearean actor Edwin Booth announced his intention to appear in London and Gooch also engaged him for six months. This caused a problem, with Booth refusing to share the stage with the English actor. The Princess' Theatre re-opened in November 1880, with Booth and his company in a production of Hamlet. Rather than face the prospect of being "shelved for several months", Warner joined the company at the Sadler's Wells Theatre, in the Clerkenwell district of central London.Warner remained at the Sadler's Wells Theatre for nine months, where he played a range of Shakespearean characters such as 'Othello' and 'Macbeth', as well as appearing in other plays. In late-January 1881 Warner performed as 'Walter Lee' in Henry Pettitt's drama, Taken from Life.
Warner's versatility as an actor was considered to be one of his strengths. In a summary of the actor's career, written in 1882, the writer George Wilman commented on Warner's ability to "play the hero of a classical piece one night, and turn the next to a character demanding all the sprightliness, wit and buoyancy of manner that are the indispensable attainments of a refined low comedian".
Adelphi Theatre
Warner directed productions and played a series of melodramatic roles at the Adelphi Theatre from March 1881 to June 1885.- In March 1881 Warner directed an adaption of Jules Verne's Michael Strogoff and also played the title role. On opening night he was wounded in the hand during a duel "fought with a scimitar dangerously and unnecessarily sharp". The production was a success, playing for 100 performances.
- During August 1881 Warner directed a revival of Dion Boucicault's Janet Pride, also playing 'Richard Pride' in the production.
- It's Never Too Late to Mend by Charles Reade opened in September 1881, with Warner in the role of 'Tom Robinson'.
- Taken from Life by Henry Pettitt, which opened on 31 December 1881, was directed by Warner, who also had the lead role of 'Walter Lee' in the production.
- In August 1882 a revival of Drink opened at the Adelphi, with Warner reprising his highly regarded performance as 'Coupeau'.
- In January 1883 Warner played the lead role in a revival of Dora, Reade's adaption of Tennyson's poem.
- The "sensational melodrama" Storm-Beaten opened in March 1883, with Warner directing and playing the role of 'Christian Christianson'.
- The Streets of London written by Dion Boucicault, from July to October 1883 with Warner in the role of 'Badger'.
- From October 1883 to March 1885 Warner played 'Ned Drayton' in the drama, In the Ranks, a play that ran "for nearly 500 consecutive nights". After the opening night Warner was described as "the typical hero of the Adelphi romance" who "seemed to carry the play on his shoulders to success".
- The Last Chance written by George R. Sims, from April to June 1885 with Warner in the role of 'Frank Daryll'.