The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-08-31
.MANSF|ELD'S LAST
ROLE NOW PLAYED.
Life Of Brilliant Actor Cut
Short by Brief
illness.
WAS AMERICAS
FOREMOST ACTOR
His Rise from Obscurity to Pin
nacle Of His Profession-Roles
in Which He Won Fame.
His Personal Charac-
ter and Peculiari-
ties.

s
NEW LONDON, August 3o.-Richard
Mansfield. the best known actor on
the American stage, passed away at
$50 O'Clock this morning at his sum-
mer residence. Seven Oaks, Ocean Ave-
nue.. Death was directly due to dis
ease of the liver aggravated by COM
|plications.
Mr. Mansfelds condition had been
reported as being excellent. 1t was
stated that he stood the journey we'll
from Saranac Lake and that he was
up and around his home here until
three days ago Then a turn for the
worse set in and Mr.. Mansfield was
confined to his room. On Thursday
Or. Mcclellan, of Pittsburg, was SUM-
moned. DR.. Allen said to-day that he
had feared the worst for several days.
During the great actors last moments
he did not recognize the loved ones at
his bedside There were present at
the time of his death his wife. lis
brother Felix. his young son, Gibbs,
and che physicians and nurses.
Directly opposite Seven Oaks, Mr..
Mansfield's late home. is a small burial
plot, in which are buried the members
of the Gardiner family, from whom Mr..
Mansfield purchased his summer home.
There the great actors body will rest.
This is at his request made on his
death bed.
The funeral will take place Monday
from his late residence. The casket
enclosing the actors body. expensive
even in its simplicity. Will be encased
| in a solid steel vault. Rev. Alfred
Poole Grint, d. D., rector of ST. James
Episcopal Church. will .officiate at the
services. The pall-bearers have not
as yet been selected. All day to-day
| telegrams of coincidence have been re-
ceived from all parts of the world.
A discriminating Estimntc.
=. F.. Price. resident manager OF the
New Edwin Forrest Theatre. who was
Richard Mansfeld's first acting man
ager. in speaking of Mr. Mansfield,
said:
"From the hour we set out from,
the Madison Square Theatre in Prince
Karl. twenty years ago. Mr.. Mans
| field was dominated by Overwhelming
ambition and resistless purpose. He
climbed rapidly by successive steps
His own little comedy, Monsieur'; his
dual creation in DIR. Jekyl and Mr..
Hyde, and his production OF Richard
ILL., at the London Globe. following
our tenancy of Irving's Lyceum with
Beau Brummel,' gave him great Inn
petns. He met failures firmly, and
the non-success of Nero Ten Thou
sand Year Don Juan and King of
Peru only nerved him to later achieve.
ments which made him Americas rep,
resentative actor.
Mansfield was nervous, excitable
man of rapidly alternating moods.
given to fits of morhidity and suspi-
cion. His early death was a foregone
conclusion. A splendid athlete. he did
not conserve his vital forces. He was
a disciplinarian to the. point of being
a martinez but his aim was always
artistic. Unfortunately. he was given
to regard his fellows from wrong
luslon that mankind was arrayed
against him. Excessively nervous,
given to the exaggeratlon of small
|annoyances. much of this due to tefed-
ity. his courage was superb and his
sense of justice acute.
There was perhaps no other man in
America who could take a mixed cons
pany of men, representative in the arts
and public life and entertain them at
the table with such Infinite courtesy.
grace and tact. W
Mansfield was surely no sycophant,
but he was attracted to men of high
mentality as they We're drawn to him.
His friends were of the best, such
men as William Winter. Colonel r. A.
Buck, General Horace Porter and Elhu
Root. and he held them.
Ills domestic life, which l saw de-
velop from his courtship. was blame
less and serene. Mansfield was poet.
painter, playwright and player. and
excelled In every line of endeavor.''