Lowin was definitely associated with the theatrical world by 1602. His name frequently occurs in the account books of
Philip Henslowe in 1602, when he was playing with
Worcester's Men at
Rose Theatre in
Bankside; a note in Henslowe's book places him in a travelling company in the same year. By late 1603, he had joined the new
King's Men, apparently as a hired man rather than a sharer, as his name is not mentioned in the original royal patent. He probably became a sharer in 1604, when the total number of sharers was likely increased to twelve. That he became important to the company fairly quickly is suggested by his appearance as himself (alongside
Richard Burbage and
Henry Condell) in the induction to
John Marston's
The Malcontent. He is mentioned in the surviving cast lists of the company's productions of
Ben Jonson's
Sejanus (1603),
Volpone (1605),
The Alchemist (1610), and
Catiline (1611),
John Fletcher's Bonduca and
Valentinian (both ca. 1613), and
John Webster's
The Duchess of Malfi (ca. 1614). Lowin's prowess as an actor is displayed by a remarkable fact about the plays in which he acted. In the hundreds of plays, and the thousands of roles in them, that date to the 1580–1610 era, there are only about twenty roles of 800 lines or longer. Only three plays have
two roles of this scale: Shakespeare's
Othello and Jonson's
Volpone and
The Alchemist. Burbage played the starring role in the King's Men's productions of these plays—;and Lowin apparently was the man who seconded him (just as Lowin is known to have played Bosola to Burbage's Ferdinand in
The Duchess of Malfi). In all likelihood it was Lowin who played Iago to Burbage's Othello, Mosca to his Volpone, and Subtle to his Face.
Edward Alleyn's diary speaks of his dining with Lowin in 1620. When
John Heminges died in 1630, Lowin purchased an eighth of the total shares in the
Globe and
Blackfriars Theatres. Together with
Cuthbert Burbage,
Richard Robinson and Winifred (d.1642), his wife,
William Heminges, and
Joseph Taylor, Lowin filed a Bill of Complaint on 28 January 1632 in the
Court of Requests against the owner of the Globe,
Sir Matthew Brend, in order to obtain confirmation of an extension of the 31-year lease originally granted by Sir Matthew Brend's father,
Nicholas Brend. With the death of Heminges in 1630, the old guard left over from the
Lord Chamberlain's Men had finally passed. From that year until the theaters closed in 1642, Lowin (together with Joseph Taylor) assumed the roles previously fulfilled by Heminges, serving as treasurers and as contacts with the court and with the
Master of the Revels. In 1633, he was scolded by Sir
Henry Herbert for staging Fletcher's ''
The Woman's Prize without censorship. After the theaters closed in 1642, Lowin may have kept an inn (called the Three Pigeons'') at
Brentford, where he died in 1659, at the age of eighty-two. Lowin was one of the ten King's Men who signed the dedication in the 1647 Beaumont and Fletcher First Folio; also, he signed the 1652 edition of Fletcher's
The Wild Goose Chase with Joseph Taylor. In the 25 cast lists added to plays in the
second Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1679, Lowin's name is mentioned in the lists for 21 dramas, more than any other single actor: •
Bonduca •
The Custom of the Country •
The Double Marriage •
The False One •
The Humorous Lieutenant •
The Island Princess •
The Knight of Malta •
The Laws of Candy •
The Little French Lawyer •
The Loyal Subject • ''
The Lovers' Progress'' •
The Mad Lover •
The Maid in the Mill •
The Pilgrim •
The Prophetess •
The Queen of Corinth •
The Sea Voyage •
The Spanish Curate •
Valentinian •
The Wild Goose Chase •
Women Pleased Lowin, whose portrait in the
Ashmolean Museum reveals as a large and imposing figure, is often associated with comic characters, especially those of a "stout blunt humor," including
Falstaff and Melantius in
Beaumont and Fletcher's ''
The Maid's Tragedy''. On the authority of James Wright's
Historia Histrionica (1699), he is also associated with Jonson's Epicure Mammon (
The Alchemist), Morose (
Epicoene), and the title role in
Volpone. Again on Wright's report, Lowin is supposed to have originated the role of Bosola in
The Duchess of Malfi, and he was probably also the original Flaminius in
Philip Massinger's
Believe as You List. Finally, in
Roscius Anglicanus,
John Downes reports that Lowin originated the title role in Shakespeare and Fletcher's
Henry VIII. ==Legacy==