Henry E. Dixey
Henry E. Dixey (January 6, 1859 – February 25, 1943) was an American actor and theatre producer. He was born January 6, 1859 in Boston, Massachusetts. He made his stage debut in Boston in 1868, joining the variety stock actors at the Howard Athenaeum, where in 1869 he played the character Peanuts in the Augustin Daly play Under the Gaslight. Dixey starred in many plays and musicals, including his best-known role as the lead character in the popular burlesque musical Adonis, which he played from 1883 to 1885, occasionally joining tours afterwards. He performed on stage and in a handful of films until 1926.
Dixey was one of a party of gentlemen entertained by Robert Emmet Odlum, brother of women's rights activist Charlotte Odlum Smith, on the morning of May 19, 1885, the day he jumped from the Brooklyn Bridge and was killed. Dixey used his gold stopwatch to time Odlum's fatal jump at three and a half seconds.[1]
Dixey died February 25, 1943 in Atlantic City, New Jersey following a traffic accident.
References
- ↑ Catherine Odlum (1885). The Life and Adventures of Prof. Robert Emmet Odlum, Containing an Account of his Splendid Natatorium at the National Capital. Gray and Clarkson.
External links
- Article on Henry E. Dixey from The Oxford Companion to American Theatre
- Henry E. Dixey at the Internet Broadway Database
