Charles Francis Coghlan - Career

Career

Charles Coghlan began his stage career in 1859 as a minor player with the Sadler's Wells Theatre’s summer tour. During their engagement in Dublin, Ireland Coghlan approached John Baldwin Buckstone, then manager of the Haymarket Theatre, with a play he had written. Buckstone passed on the play, but instead gave him the chance to play Monsieur Mafoi, a small role in “The Pilgrim of Love” a play adapted by Lord Byron from Irving’s “Legends of the Alhambra” that opened at the Haymarket on, April 9, 1860. Over the following few seasons Coghlan would play a number of supporting roles that steadily increased his stature as an actor. In 1868 he played Charles Surface in Sheridan’s "School for Scandal" at the St James's Theatre and later that year as Sir Oscar playing opposite Adelaide Neilson in Marston’s “Life for Life” at the Prince of Wales Theatre. Coghlan would remain with Prince of Wales over the next seven or eight seasons playing leading roles such as Geoffrey Delamayn in Collins’ "Man and Wife” and Harry Speadbrow in Gilbert’s Sweethearts.

In 1876 Augustin Daly brought Coghlan to America where he would spend the greater balance of his career. He made his Broadway debut on September 12, 1876 at the Fifth Avenue Theater, as Alfred Evelyn in Lord Lytton’s “Money” and was an instant success. Two months later, at the same venue, Coghlan played Orlando opposite Fanny Davenport’s Rosalind in Shakespeare’s As You Like It. The next season Coghlan was engaged as the leading man at the Union Square Theater, where he played Jean Remind during the successful run of Augustus R. Cazauran’s The Celebrated Case. He returned to London in 1881 to play Col. Woods, U.S.A. in the long-running "The Colonel" produced at the Prince of Wales. The pinnacle of Coghlan’s near twenty-five-year career in America came on December 2, 1898, at the Fifth Avenue Theater in his own adaptation of the Dumas’ play “Kean” titled “The Royal Box”, in which he played the part of the actor Clarence,. This great success was tempered the following year by the failure of his play "Citizen Pierre", in which he made his last New York performance. Over his career Coghlan had played opposite his sister, Rose Coghlan, and in support of Lillie Langtry and Minnie Maddern Fiske. His last appearance on the stage was at Houston, Texas on October 28, 1899, as Clarence in "The Royal Box".