   250px|thumb|right|william kempe (right) from nine days wonder (1600) william kempe (died 1603), commonly referred to as will kemp, was an english actor and dancer specialising in comic roles and best known for having been one of the original players in early dramas by william shakespeare. roles associated with his name may include the great comic creation, falstaff, and his contemporaries considered him the successor to the great clown of the previous generation, richard tarlton. kempe's success and influence was such that in december 1598 he was one of a core of five actor-shareholders in the lord chamberlain's men alongside shakespeare and richard burbage, but in a short time (possibly after a disagreement among the members of the troupe) he parted company with the group. despite his fame as a performer and subsequent intent to continue his career, he appears to have died unregarded and in penury circa 1603. ==life== in a 1615 lawsuit brought by thomasina (nÃ©e heminges) ostler, widow of william ostler, against her father, john heminges, the recently deceased actor william kempe was referred to as a gentleman (willelmo kempe nuper de londonia generoso defuncto),. and it has been suggested that he was a member of the kempe family of olantigh, kent: kemp's parentage is unknown, though it has been conjectured that, despite his plebeian performance persona, he was linked in some way to the kempes of ollantighe, near ashford in kent, who were a wealthy catholic dynasty. sir thomas kempe (1517â1591) did indeed have a son named william;. however, the claim that this william kempe was the actor cannot be correct, since he was buried at wye church on 27 march 1597 (honneyman, 125â9; bannerman, 3; private information, a. findlay) . nonetheless, this putative connection might help explain the otherwise surprising storyâdramatized in the play the travailes of the three english brothers (1607) by day, rowley, and wilkinsâthat when william kemp the actor was in italy in 1601 he had an encounter with the celebrated traveller sir anthony shirley: for sir anthony and his two equally famous brothers were related to the ollantighe kempes through their mother, who was sir thomas kempe's daughter. possibly, then, the actor had some tie of kinship to ollantighe, at an outlying point on the family tree; or perhaps in recommending himself to shirley he was just opportunistically taking advantage of the name he shared with shirley's mother.. kempe first enters the historical record as a performer with leicester's men at leicester house in may 1585the earl made a special payment of ten shillings for this performance. and continued in this service after [[rober
1603_deaths 16th-century_English_male_actors 16th-century_births 17th-century_English_male_actors Burials_at_Southwark_Cathedral English_clowns English_dancers English_male_stage_actors Male_Shakespearean_actors People_associated_with_Shakespeare People_of_the_Tudor_period Walkers_of_the_United_Kingdom