Joseph Coyne

The son of Irish immigrants James P. Coyne of Queens County, and Margaret Downey of West Meath County, Coyne was born in New York City, the middle of three children. His father worked as a seaman and, later, a waiter, while his mother kept house. Having shown talent for drawing "and the like," Coyne's parents apprenticed him to a sculptor where his job was to keep the clay moist for modeling, particularly over the weekends. But Coyne so loved the theater that he'd sneak off to watch shows instead of keeping the clay wet, and fled the job after breaking a statue that was supposed to be under his care. Instead Coyne, having "of his own accord discovered himself as a dancer," went to a casting call for boys who could dance, and was one of six out of hundreds who was cast, thanks to his natural talent. He made his stage debut in New York at 16 as a performer in one of The Kiralfy Brothers spectacular productions (Excelsior 1883-1885). Coyne spent the next 10 years in Vaudeville, perfecting his comedic skills as half of a duo known as 'Evans and Coyne,' with his friend, actor Frank Evans. They performed in music halls and anywhere else that would book them, including joining a circus and performing in blackface. ==Theatrical career==

A "real" actor Coyne first appeared in legitimate theatre in 1895, joining the Rose Lyall Dramatic Company. The Merry Widow, the reluctant hero, and major stardom The casting of Joseph Coyne as romantic lead Prince Danilo in his enormously successful adaptation of Franz Lehár's German operetta The Merry Widow surprised the musical theater world. Edwardes loved the effect, When, at the dress rehearsal, Joe finally performed by speaking his songs to the music, "Lehár was horrified. He stopped the rehearsal; he put down his baton. 'What was this?' he demanded. Edwardes assured Lehár that Mr. Coyne was a very funny man. 'But I have not written funny music," retorted Lehár. 'Herr Lehár,' he said, 'that man will put a fortune in your pocket, even if he does not sing your beautiful music.' The rehearsal dragged its weary way along. At last it was over. Lehár did not seem distressed, rather pleased than otherwise, though still doubtful of Joe." First night ticket sales had not been as robust as usual for an Edwardes production. The first night audience was more quiet than usual. Lehár, who had not been able to do anything about the casting of Joe Coyne as Danilo, was still doubtful. The audience did not know what to make of Joe Coyne. He was not the romantic hero they were used to. He made his entrance "without dash, with absolute reluctance, with an odd walk, not handsome, not even good-looking, but round, a bit blank and, above all, worried. In Coyne's first number, he told of the joys of Maxim's, and of the girls there. Literally he told it, speaking the words, but speaking them so clearly, with such quiet meaning, and in such perfect time, that the melody behind them, with all the lilt of Maxim's and ladies in its dancing notes, was brilliantly enhanced by it." By the end of the first act Lehár was amazed. Though the audience seemed reserved and did not clap with typical enthusiasm, Lehár felt that Coyne had "unquestionably got his audience. He himself had felt the power this odd man Coyne was putting over the footlights." He is also said to have been the first non-British actor ever to have headed a cast at London's Daly Theatre. Going straight Taking a brief hiatus from The Merry Widow in 1908, Coyne starred in the comic play The Mollusc, by Hubert Henry Davies, at the Garrick Theatre in New York, opposite the English actress Alexandra Carlisle before returning to London to resume playing Prince Danilo. Charles Frohman, in a cable to the Daily London Telegraph said of Coyne, with respect to casting him in The Mollusc, "...I have carefully watched Mr. Coyne's work, and I now predict for him an extraordinary future as an actor of great strength. Those are the words--an actor of great strength--way beyond anything ever dreamed of by his most ardent admirers. Few people could think of Miss Billie Burke in straight comedy, who knew her only in musical comedy. Now nobody who knows her in straight comedy can think of her in musical comedy. The same transformation, the same career and success, are in store for Mr. Coyne. Nor am I alone in this opinion. Hubert Henry Davies, author of The Mollusc told me and Coyne how thankful he is that America is to see his play performed by an actor of such rare technique and fine virility as distinguish Mr. Coyne's more recent work. In a word, America is to see quite a new Mr. Coyne when he appears in The Mollusc. In an article for Theatre Magazine entitled "Speeches That Made Great Parts" author John D. Williams said "The much dreaded, much maligned long speech only deserves its reputation when it is mishandled. Deftly managed it can be made the chief joy of the play. For instance nothing could much surpass the skill and charm of manner with which Joseph Coyne defines a mollusc in the play of that name. The speech contains scientific lore, the merriest sort of human observation and considerable genuine philosophy. It is long but its actual length is never apparent, because of the carefully veiled devices Mr. Coyne employs properly to paragraph it without actually interrupting it." The Edwardes Era Coyne followed this with a succession of leading roles for Edwardes, including Harry Q. Conder in The Dollar Princess (1909), Tony Chute in The Quaker Girl in both the London and the Paris companies (1910-1911), Teddy Cavanaugh in The Dancing Mistress (1912), and Sandy Blair in The Girl from Utah (1913), all in the West End. He never recovered his good health, and died at home 4 October 1915. The World War Era Coyne resumed working on the London stage playing O. Vivian Smith in ''He Didn't Want To Do It,'' a farcical play in 3 acts, by George Broadhurst and Walter Hackett (1915). Following that he appeared in the Irving Berlin's first musical Watch Your Step (1915), and another Berlin show, Follow The Crowd (Empire Theatre, opened 19 Feb 1916), which had debuted in New York as Stop! Look! Listen! in late 1915. Other work in the World War I timeframe included playing Ronald Clibran in The Clock Goes Round (1916), Lawyer Gooch in Step In The Office (1916), and a local revue called The Bing Girls Are There (1917). He returned to musical theater in the role of Prince Paul of Perania in Arlette (1917), and Robert Street in Going Up (1918). ==Marriages==

In a March 1894 court hearing actress Grace Sherwood, who accused Coyne of assault, claimed that she and Coyne had been married three years prior, a fact Coyne denied. An article in The Buffalo Courier reporting on the case referred to Sherwood as Coyne's "common-law wife." Seventeen years later a 1911 article in The Sun claimed that the pair were "separated by divorce" sometime prior to August 1898. As of this edit, research has not revealed either a marriage record or a divorce record for the couple. In August 1898 Joseph married American actress Anna Boyd in New York. A decade later the two divorced amid rumors that Coyne was engaged to actress Alexandra Carlisle. Reports regarding the engagement surfaced as early as March 1908, which is about the time Charles Frohman announced that Coyne and Carlisle would star together in The Mollusc in New York that fall. The situation blew up in November 1908 during the final weeks of ''The Mollusc's'' run when reports of an engagement between Coyne and Carlisle reached Anna Boyd, who was compelled to assert herself as Mrs. Joseph Coyne by visiting Carlisle's New York apartment to introduce herself as such. Much denial ensued, with Coyne claiming he was not married to Boyd, and both Carlisle and Coyne denying any engagement. A year later, in September 1909, Coyne announced that he and English actress Alexandra Carlisle had secretly wed on 3 December 1908, issuing a statement that said, "We wished to get along quietly until the event was so far back that nobody would want to throw rice and old shoes at us. We have realized our best hopes and are happy. A quiet wedding saves you a lot of trouble and your friends a lot of rice." Ironically, just two months earlier on 25 July 1909, the Washington Herald reported that Anna Boyd had finalized her divorce from Coyne, who would soon wed Alexandra Carlisle. The secret marriage between Coyne and Carlisle in 1908 ended in a secret divorce sometime in 1912, quickly followed by another secret marriage; in Oct 1912 Carlisle married Dr. Albert Pfeiffer, an American dentist living in London. ==Personality and Persona==

Theatre historian and author W. J. MacQueen-Pope, who worked with Coyne on The Merry Widow, described him as "a curious-looking fellow, with a round face and a pair of rather sad eyes, loose-limbed and with a habit of kicking out on each side with his feet as he walked. Here was a man who could twist a woman round his finger without effort, but his simple, wistful appeal, and who also would be hail-fellow-well-met with the men; there was the smile and the lurking mischief in the eye, which peep forth from time to time, to prove it. MacQueen-Pope also had the following to say about Joe Coyne: "He was an extraordinary man. All theatrical people are a little mad; otherwise they are no good in that crazy place, the Theatre. But Joe had slightly more madness than usual. He had strong likes and dislikes. If he did not like anyone, they knew all about it. If he did, the knew all about it too. It was a matter of extreme difficulty to get him to make up his mind about anything—especially if it was for his own good. One of the present writers had a long-drawn-out and weary task in persuading him to play in Going Up at the Gaiety, in which he made an immense success. He was very doubtful about it. But he did it. "He was of a very economical turn of mind. He believed in ready money, but had little faith in banks or investments. He liked to see his cash. For many hears he kept his money in a safe deposit in the West End and would go down and count it. He said he would retire when it reached a certain figure. That figure was never reached because he was persuaded to make some investments--or speculations--also against his will, and he suffered for this departure from his custom by losing a lot of money in one of the Wall Street crashes. "That frightened him badly. Indeed, he imagined he was ruined. Even the sight of his own money failed to reassure him. He became more economical than ever. He lived in a top room at the Carlton Hotel, but he did not have his meals there. He said he could not afford them. He would wash his own 'smalls' in his bedroom and dry his socks and handkerchiefs on the towel rail. It saved him money. He went out to tea most afternoons with his friend, one of the hotel linkmen, and they partook of this meal in a little dairy in the neighborhood of St. James's Street. His one extravagance was ice cream. Of this he devoured quantities. He would go into the Coventry Street Corner House, at all hours of the day or night, and consume small mountains of it. He said he liked it, and that it kept him fit. "He took the greatest care of his clothes; many of his suits were years old and most of them he had worn on the stage--and acquired. Comment on his smart shoes, and, if he knew you, he would lift up his foot and show the metal 'taps' still on th soles. Shirts, collars and ties--all came from the theatre, and he valeted himself with scrupulous care. He walked everywhere; he said it kept him slim and fit. It also saved money." MacQueen-Pope mentions that "later in life [Coyne] reached a stage when he would have long conversations on street corners with people quite invisible to anyone else, but most interesting and chatty to him. Joe suffered from hallucinations..." ==Death==

After retiring from the stage in 1931 at the age of 64, Coyne settled in Virginia Water, near Windsor. He died of pneumonia in 1941, aged 73. ==References==