page_title: William E. Sheridan
section_title: Career
hierarchical_section_title: William E. Sheridan / Career
caption_attribution_description: English: William E. Sheridan as Shylock
context_page_description: William E. Sheridan was an American stage actor and Civil War veteran, active on stage from 1858 until his death in 1887. Sheridan was a respected actor who played both lead and supporting roles, but was probably best suited when cast as the villain.
context_section_description: In July, 1865 Sheridan made his debut at Niblo's Garden, New York in Dion Boucicault's Arrah Na Pouge, playing Beamish McGoul with Thomas Henry Glenney (his American debut) as Shawn the Post, Josephine Orton as Arrah Mellish and Mary Wells playing Katy. When Edwin Forrest began his engagement at Niblo's that September, Sheridan would fill in as his substitute on the actor’s off days. Sheridan later returned as a lead actor to Pike's Opera House until the theatre was consumed by fire in March 1866. Over the following several seasons Sheridan was associated with theatres in St. Louis, Washington D. C., Boston, New Orleans and Philadelphia. In November 1867 he received praise for his interpretation of Captain Hawtree in the T. W. Robertson play Caste at the National Theatre, Washington D. C. By 1870 he was the lead actor at the Chestnut Street Theatre, Philadelphia, and by the early 1870s Sheridan was a member of Edwin Booth's company at Booth's Theatre, New York performing second lead in Shakespearean tragedies.
  Sheridan toured with stock companies headed by the comedian John T. Raymond, actress Julia Dean and British actors Mr. and Mrs. Rousby (William Wybert Rousby and Clara Marion Jesse Dowse). and had played the leading man opposite actresses Lucille Western, Charlotte Thompson (1843-1898), Adele Belgarde (d. 1938, mother of film director David Butler) and had appeared in England with McKee and Kitty Rankin playing The Parson in Joaquin Miller's The Danites in the Sierras.
  Reportedly, Sheridan was most at ease when he starred in productions of Casimir Delavigne's Louis XI and John Brougham's The Duke's Motto. The role he was most identified with over his career was as Joseph Fioretti, a part he played numerous times in Leonard Grover's farce melodrama, Our Boarding House. Sheridan was also remembered for his renditions of Hamlet, Richard III, Cardinal Richelieu and other classical and contemporary roles played over a near thirty-year career.
caption: Sheridan as Shylock
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