British Actor. Regarded as the greatest tragedian of his day. Coleridge wrote of Kean that to see him act was like reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning. He was the illegitimate son of Edmund Kean, an architect's clerk who committed suicide at the age of 22, and Anne Carey, an itinerant actress and street hawker, and was brought up by Charlotte Tidswell, the mistress of his father's elder brother, Moses Kean. Charlotte, who had formerly been the lover of the 11th Duke of Norfolk, was a member of the Drury Lane Theatre Company. Edmund made his stage debut as a child, and later worked as a ventriloquist and an acrobat, until he broke both his legs in a tumble. At the age of fifteen, he joined Samuel Jerrold's company at Sheerness in Kent; his wages were fifteen shillings a week. In 1808, he married Mary Chambers, an Irish actress from Waterford. Their son Charles (1811-1868) was himself to become a distinguished actor, but Edmund deserted her for long periods. In 1814, after years in the provinces, he made his debut at Drury Lane, as Shylock. This brought him immediate fame, as did his non-Shakespearean roles as Barabas in Marlowe's "The Jew of Malta", and Sir Charles Overreach in Massinger's "A New Way to Pay Old Debts". He toured the United States in 1820 and was feted there. In 1825, he was successfully sued for adultery with the wife of an alderman named Cox, and had to pay £2,000 in compensation. Following this, he was booed on stage, both in England and on his second and final visit to America. This caused him to turn to the bottle and ruined his health. On 25 March 1823, he was appearing at Covent Garden as Othello, with his son as Iago, the only time the two of them were to act together. After he had spoken the line, "Othello's occupation's gone", he collapsed on stage, and was carried to the Wrekin Tavern in Broad Court. The next day, he was taken to his house in Richmond, about nine miles southwest of London; and it was there, six weeks later, that he died. He is buried beneath the floor at the southwest corner of St. Mary Magdalene's Church. The plaque, provided by his son, is on the northwest wall, adjacent to those of Mary Elizabeth Braddon and James Thomson.