John Philip Kemble Biography

Dromo's Den

KEMBLE, John Philip (1757-1823). An eminent English actor, the eldest son and second child of Roger Kemhle (q.v.). Born at Prescott in Lancashire, Feb. 1, 1757, he was educated chiefly at a Roman Catholic seminary in Staffordshire and at the English College of Douai in France. Though intended for the Church, on his return to England he adopted the stage as his profession, making his first appearance at Wolverhampton in 1776. On Sept. 30, 1783, he first appeared at Drury Lane in Hamlet-- a favorite character of his--and in 1788 he succeeded to the management of that theatre, where his elder sister, Mrs. Siddons (q.v.), was for some years the leading actress. After the destruction of the building by fire Kemble raised a new one, which was opened in 1809. In June, 1817, he retired from the stage, and a few days thereafter a public dinner was given him, for which Thomas Campbell composed his Valedictory Stanzas to J. P. Kemble, Esq. He finally took up his residence in Switzerland, where he died on Feb. 26, 1823. His wife, Priscilla Kemble, an actress of ability, whom he had married in 1787, survived him. Kemble was a great tragedian and a man of character. He loved to personate, with his commanding figure and sonorous voice, the loftier heroes of the dramas-kings, prelates, heroes. He was especially successful in Brutus, Wolsey, Macbeth, and Coriolanus. Consult: Boaden, Memoirs of the Life of John Philip Kemble, Esq. (London, 1825); FitzGerald, The Kembles (ib., 1871); Lewes, On Actors and the Art of Acting (ib., 1875); Baker, English Actors from Shakespeare to Macready (New York, 1870); Doran, Annals of the Stage, edited by Love (London, 1888).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 161.