Otho Stuart (9 August 1863 – 1 May 1930) was a British actor of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who specialised in performing in the plays of Shakespeare. Stuart played the range of Shakespearean leading men, both with the Company of F. R. Benson and with his own Company during his management of the Adelphi Theatre in London. Of independent means, he used his own money to help finance Benson's productions and his own. The theatre critic J. C. Trewin described him as 'one of the handsomest Oberons of all time.'
Early career He was born as Otto Stuart Andreae in 1863 in Battersea, the youngest of six children born to Emelia née Sillem (1825–1899) and John Charles Andreae (1819–1892), a German-born naturalised British subject who was a Commissioner Merchant in Indigo. In 1881 Stuart was employed as a commercial clerk1881 England Census for Otto Andreae: London, Battersea - Ancestry.com and made his professional stage début in 1886 in F. R. Benson's first season at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.OTHO STUART, LONDON ACTOR-MANAGER, DIES; Governmentor of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre Made His Stage Debut in 1886 - The New York Times, 2 May 1930, Page 21Nicholas Fogg, Secret Stratford-upon-Avon, Amberley Publishing (2017) - Google Books In April 1886 he played Francisco in Hamlet,Cast of Hamlet (1886) - Royal Shakespeare Company website Julio in Othello,Cast of Othello (1886) - Royal Shakespeare Company website Messenger in Richard III,Cast of Richard III (1886) - Royal Shakespeare Company website and in May 1886 the Surgeon in The Corsican Brothers.Cast of The Corsican Brothers (1886) - Royal Shakespeare Company website
Theatrical career
In Benson's 1888 season at Stratford-upon-Avon he played Morello opposite Ada Ferrar in Andrea;Cast of Andrea (1888) - Royal Shakespeare Company website Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream;Cast of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1888) - Royal Shakespeare Company website Horatio in Hamlet;Cast of Hamlet (1888) - Royal Shakespeare Company website Paris in Romeo and Juliet;Cast of Romeo and Juliet (1888) - Royal Shakespeare Company website and was Dashwood in The Belle's Stratagem.Cast of The Belle's Stratagem (1888) - Royal Shakespeare Company website
In 1891 he was touring with the Company of F. R. Benson and at the time of the 1891 Census he was staying in the same boarding house with Benson and his wife Constance Benson in Nottingham.1891 England Census for Otho S Andreae: Nottinghamshire, St Mary, Nottingham North West - Ancestry.com In the same year he appeared at Benson's season at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, playing Horatio in Hamlet,Cast of Hamlet (1891) - Royal Shakespeare Company website Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing,Cast of Much Ado About Nothing (1891) - Royal Shakespeare Company website Bertie Fitzurse in New Men and Old Acres,Cast of New Men and Old Acres (1891) - Royal Shakespeare Company website and Ferdinand in The Tempest.Cast of The Tempest (1891) - Royal Shakespeare Company website During 1892 Stuart was the leading man for Mrs. Bernard Beere in her Australian tour.Who's who in the theatre: a biographical record of the contemporary stage, compiled and edited John Parker. London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1912 (p. 469) In Benson's 1893 Stratford season Stuart was Tullus Aufidius in CoriolanusCast of Coriolanus (1893) - Royal Shakespeare Company website and Renaud in The Corsican Brothers.Cast of The Corsican Brothers (1893) - Royal Shakespeare Company website
Actor-manager In 1896 he was touring as actor-manager with his own Otho Stuart Company as Constantine Brancomir in For the Crowd. When in 1901 it looked like the Company of F. R. Benson would fold it was Stuart's managerial acumen that kept it afloat.Geddeth Smith, Walter Hampden: Dean of the American Theatre, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press (2008) - Google Books p. 35 From 1904 to 1907 with Oscar Asche he co-managed the Adelphi TheatreSmith, Walter Hampden, p. 52Brian Singleton, Oscar Asche, Orientalism, and British Musical Comedy, Praeger Publishing (2004) - Google Books p. 49 which became noted for its productions of modern drama and Shakespearean revivals. Their first play was The Prayer of the Sword in which Walter Hampden appeared. Stuart co-produced The Taming of the Shrew with Oscar Asche in 1904. Their production of A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1905 had Asche as Bottom and Roxy Barton as Titania. In 1905 they produced Hamlet with H. B. Irving in the title role,The Letters of Henry Irving - The Henry Irving Database Under Which King? (1905) with Lily Brayton and Measure for Measure (1906) with Asche as Lucentio.The Adelphi Theatre, The London Encyclopaedia, Pan MacMillan The Graphic of November 1906 wrote, 'Mr. Otho Stuart's management at the Adelphi has for long been distinguished by his bold policy of encouraging the poetic drama. At a time when every other theatre in London has shrunk from producing blank-verse plays he has boldly come forward and produced piece after piece of this character, and this, too, in a beautiful and tasteful manner. As a result, his theatre from being a home of melodrama, has come to be the home of blank-verse plays. His latest venture, produced last week with every sign of success, is the work of a new and young playwright, namely, Mr. Rudolf Besier. It is called The Virgin Goddess and is a Greek tragedy written on the lines used by the Greek dramatists...''The Virgin Goddess at the Adelphi - The Graphic, 3 November 1906, p. 567 The drama starred Oscar Asche and Lily Brayton. Stuart directed Turtle Doves at Wyndham's Theatre in 1906.J. P. Wearing, The London Stage 1900-1909: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel, Rowman & Littlefield (2014) - Google Books p. 316
When the lease at the Adelphi Theatre came to an end in 1907 Stuart became manager of the Royal Court Theatre in London. Here he had an unexpected failure and needing another play quickly he accepted Lady Frederick by Somerset Maugham, then virtually an unknown writer.Selina Hastings,The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham: A Biography, Arcade Publishing (2012) - Google BooksThe Collected Plays of W. Somerset Maugham, volume 1. Heinemann, 1961. Preface, pages vii–xi Maugham later wrote, '... Otho Stuart, who was a famous [theatrical] manager in his day, had run into difficulties with a play at the Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, and he wanted a replacement so that the theatre shouldn't be dark. Aleister Crowley, one of my disreputable friends, introduced me to him... If Lady Federick had failed, I'd made up my mind that I would give up writing.'Avram Davidson, Adventures in Unhistory: Conjectures on the Factual Foundations of Several Ancient Legends, Tor Press (2013) - Google Books Lady Frederick was a success for Stuart and for Maugham. The drama was first at the Court Theatre on 26 October 1907, with Ethel Irving as Lady Frederick. It transferred to the Garrick Theatre, the Criterion Theatre, the New Theatre and the Haymarket Theatre; it ran for 422 performances.Anthony Curtis and John Whitehead, W. Somerset Maugham, Routledge (2013) Pages 68–70
Stuart returned to F. R. Benson for his later seasons at Stratford, playing Dr. Burton in The Peacemaker opposite Lilian Braithwaite (1907),Cast of The Peacemaker (1907) - Royal Shakespeare Company website and the Duke of Clarence in Richard III (1909 and 1910);Cast of Richard III (1909) - Royal Shakespeare Company website He was Edward Stacy Spells in Through the Post at the Royal Court Theatre (1910).J. P. Wearing, The London Stage 1910-1919: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel, Rowman & Littlefield (2014) - Google Books
For Benson at Stratford Stuart played Bassanio and Gratiano in The Merchant of Venice (1910 and 1911);Cast of The Merchant of Venice (1910) - Royal Shakespeare Company website Valentine in You Never Can Tell (1912);Cast of You Never Can Tell (1912) - Royal Shakespeare Company website and Young Marlow in She Stoops to Conquer (1912).Cast of She Stoops to Conquer (1912) - Royal Shakespeare Company website He was Johannes in The Sixth Commandment at the Haymarket Theatre (1912), and one of the Thirty Handsome Young Lords in The "Mind the Gates" Girl at His Majesty's Theatre (1912).
In F. R. Benson's 1915-16 Stratford season Stuart was Menenius Agrippa in Coriolanus (1915), Horatio in Hamlet (1915), Chorus in Henry V (1915 and 1916), Marcus Brutus in Julius Caesar (1915), Duke of Clarence in Richard III (1915), Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet (1915), and Feste in Twelfth Night (1915).Plays of Otho Stuart - Theatricalia website In Stratford's Tercentenary Commemoration of Shakespeare he played Feste in Twelfth Night and Brutus in Julius Caesar. He appeared in H. B. Irving's production of Hamlet at the Savoy Theatre (1916–17) in a cast that also included Henry Baynton.List of performances of Otho Stuart - Royal Shakespeare Company website He was Lord Lushington in Kultur at Home at the Strand Theatre (1916) and Bernard of Treviso in a matinee performance of The Elixir at the Vaudeville Theatre (1918). He was Prince Sergius Abreskov in Reparation at the St. James's Theatre (1919) opposite Claude RainsDavid Skal, Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice, The University Press of Kentucky (2008) - Google Books p. 192 and Baron Revendal in The Melting Pot at the Savoy Theatre (1920).J. P. Wearing, The London Stage 1920-1929: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel, Rowman & Littlefield (2014) - Google Books p. 68
In 1898 he married the actress Emma Marion South (1867-1927) in London.Otto Stuart Andreae in the England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915 - Ancestry.com Their daughter was Elizabeth Mary Emma Andreae (1903-1993).
Stuart was a Governmentor of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon.
In his later years he lived at 14 The Boltons, South Kensington. He died in London in 1930 and left an estate valued at £26,905 14s.England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1995 for Otto Stuart Andreae:1930 - Ancestry.com
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