Kean, Edmund (1787-1833), was considered the greatest and most influential English actor of his time. He was the first important performer to reject the polite, restrained style of acting popular in the early 1800’s. He introduced a more romantic and exuberant style that became the ideal for most of the 1800’s.
Kean first gained fame for his emotional acting style as Shylock in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice in 1814. He became best known for his portrayal of such tragic Shakespearean characters as Hamlet, Iago, Othello, and especially Richard III. The poet and critic Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote that watching Kean act was like reading Shakespeare by “flashes of lightning.” Kean was born in London, probably on Nov. 4, 1787.
