H.L. Bateman

H.L. Bateman (born December 6, 1812, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.—died March 22, 1875, London, England) was an actor and theatrical manager who made a great success of touring the United States and England with two of his daughters, both child actresses.

Bateman made his stage debut in 1832 and acted in various repertory companies until 1849. Then he, his wife, Sidney Frances, and his two eldest daughters, Kate and Ellen, aged six and four, respectively, began to tour widely as stars. Later Ellen played Richard III, Shylock, and Macbeth to Kate’s Richmond, Portia, and Lady Macbeth. In 1855 Bateman managed a St. Louis theatre and later, as Kate’s manager, moved to New York City, where she was a hit in Leah the Forsaken (1863), Augustin Daly’s version of Salomon Mosenthal’s Deborah. The French company that Bateman presented in New York (1867–69) started a craze for light opera in the United States. In 1871 he leased the Lyceum Theatre, London, and engaged the actor Henry Irving, who won fame in Leopold Lewis’s Bells.

Bateman’s wife (1823–81), in addition to acting, also wrote plays, of which the most popular was Self (1857). After her husband’s death, she managed the Lyceum and later Sadler’s Wells Theatre. Ellen Bateman (1844–1936) married early and gave up the stage, but Kate (1842–1917) continued a long career of acting. She retired briefly in 1866, when she married George Crowe, but returned in 1868, later playing Lady Macbeth and other roles with Irving.

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