Mansfield was born in
Berlin and spent his early childhood on
Heligoland, Germany, an island in the North Sea, then under British rule. His parents were
Hermine Küchenmeister-Rudersdorf, a Russian-born operatic
soprano, and Maurice Mansfield, a British London-based wine merchant (died 1861). His grandfather was the violinist Joseph Rudersdorff. Mansfield was educated at
Derby School, in
Derby, England, and studied painting in London. His mother took him to America, where she was performing, but he returned to England at age 20. Finding that he could not make a living as a painter, he gained some success as a drawing-room entertainer, eventually moving into acting.
Early career, D'Oyly Carte and first London successes He first appeared on the stage at
St. George's Hall, London, in the
German Reed Entertainments and then turned to light opera, joining
Richard D'Oyly Carte's Comedy Opera Company in 1879 to appear as Sir Joseph Porter in
H.M.S. Pinafore on tour. He continued to play the Gilbert and Sullivan comic "
patter" roles on tour in Britain until 1881. Mansfield created the role of Major General Stanley in the single
copyright performance of
The Pirates of Penzance in
Paignton, England, in 1879. In addition to Sir Joseph and the Major General, in 1880 he also began to play John Wellington Wells in
The Sorcerer. It was with this play that he made his London reputation during the 1888 season at the
Lyceum Theatre, by invitation of
Henry Irving. He also reprised the role in Broadway revivals. He was one of the earliest to produce
George Bernard Shaw's plays in America, appearing in 1894 as Bluntschli in
Arms and the Man, and as Dick Dudgeon in ''
The Devil's Disciple in 1897. The latter production was the first Shaw production to turn a profit. As a manager and producer of plays, Mansfield was known for his lavish staging. He often produced, starred in (often opposite his wife), and directed plays on Broadway, sometimes also writing under the pseudonym Meridan Phelps. His other Broadway roles in the 1890s included Napoleon Bonaparte (1894), the title role in The Story of Rodion, the Student
(1895), Sir John Sombras in Castle Sombras
(1896), Eugen Courvoisier in The First Violin
(1898 and 1988), the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac'' (1898 and 1899). He began the new century on Broadway in the title role in
King Henry V (1900), followed by the title character in
Monsieur Beaucaire, Brutus in
Julius Caesar (1902), Karl Heinrich in
Old Heidelberg (1903 and 1904), and roles in
Ivan the Terrible (1904),
A Parisian Romance (1904 and 1905),
The Merchant of Venice (1905),
Richard III (1905), Alceste in
The Misanthrope (1905),
The Scarlet Letter (1906) and
Don Carlos (1906), among others. He continued to perform until his final year. One of his last performances, just a few months before his death, was the title role in a Broadway production of
Henrik Ibsen's
Peer Gynt, the play's U.S. premiere. == Family life ==