Europe. Aldridge, the grandson of a Senegalese
prince became a British citizen and dazzled count-
less audiences. His sophisticated performances of
classical dramas were powerful challenges to the
continued cultural and social disenfranchisement
of people of color.
Ira was born in New York City to Daniel and
Lurona Aldridge, free people of color. His father
was a straw vendor and preacher, and both his
parents endeavored to provide their children a
good education. As a student at the African Free
School in the city, Aldridge frequently won prizes
for oratory, and it was there that he began to real-
ize his dramatic potential. In 1852, he married
Margaret Gill, an Englishwoman. In 1865, one
year after her death, he remarried. His second wife
was Amanda Pauline von Brandt, a Swede. He
had four children: Ira Daniel, Luranah, Ira Freder-
ick, and Amanda. Aldridge died in Lodz, Poland
on 10 August 1867.
Aldridge’s love for the stage blossomed when
he began working in local city theaters. He also
immersed himself in the African Theatre, a com-
pany that free people of color established in New
York City in 1820. He took advantage of an oppor-
tunity to leave America, because there were so few
possibilities there for his full advancement and de-
velopment in the theater. He was 17 when he ar-
rived in London, as the valet of James and Henry
Wallack, actors whom he had met in America.
Eventually, he enrolled at the University of Glas-
gow, Scotland, where he excelled in his studies and
achieved recognition for excellence in Latin. Henry
Wallack provided a key reference for Aldridge that
helped him to acquire an engagement at the Royal
Coburg Theatre in London. It was there, in Octo-
ber 1825, that Aldridge made his debut as
Oronooko in the play The Revolt of Surinam, or A
Slave’s Revenge.
Aldridge became famous as a Shakespearean
actor and was especially well known for his perfor-
mances as Othello. He gradually began to play
white roles and, in so doing, significantly broad-
ened his repertoire and his impact on the Euro-
pean dramatic tradition. During the course of his
career, he performed throughout Europe in such
roles as Macbeth, King Lear, Richard III, and Shy-
lock. Scholar Errol Hill notes that he introduced
Shakespeare to people who never before had seen
his plays staged. Aldridge, who appeared in at least
30 European nations, also was the first Shake-
spearean actor to perform in Serbia and Croatia.
He earned impressive honors and awards. These
included the White Cross of Switzerland in 1854,
admission to the National Dramatic Conservatory
of Hungary in 1858, the Imperial Jubilee de Tolstoy
Medal in 1858, and knighthood in the House of
the Royal Saxon Ernestinischen in 1858.
Aldridge often experienced racism during his
career, but he refused to allow it to curtail his pro-
fessional development. He was denied access to
prominent theaters and forced to accept engage-
ments in lesser-known playhouses. Yet, as Hill
notes, Aldridge’s career constituted “substantial
proof to the proponents emancipation that, given
the opportunity, the black man could rise from the
degradation of slavery to the highest levels of artis-
tic expression” (Hill, 18–19). He was well apprised
of racial matters and did not hesitate to use his po-
sition to challenge slavery as well. He gave finan-
cial support to antislavery organizations and, on
one occasion, he purchased and freed a family of
five fugitive slaves who had been captured and
were being auctioned.
Aldridge’s impressive accomplishments moti-
vated aspiring African-American actors and com-
panies during the Harlem Renaissance. The
ALDRIDGEPLAYERS, a group established in the mid-
1920s, honored the great tragedian by choosing his
name for their company. HOWARDUNIVERSITYes-
tablished the Ira Aldridge Theatre Building on its
campus. In 1923, JAMESWELDONJOHNSONrallied
African Americans to raise $1,000 for the Ira
Aldridge Memorial Chair, a position affiliated with
the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-
upon-Avon.Bibliography
Hill, Errol. Shakespeare in Sable: A History of Black Shake-
spearean Actors. Amherst: University of Mas-
sachusetts Press, 1984.
Lindfors, Bernth, “ ‘Nothing Extenuate, nor Set Down
aught in Malice’: New Biographical Information on
Ira Aldridge.” African American Review28, no. 3
(fall 1994): 457–472.
Marshall, Herbert and Mildred Stock. Ira Aldridge: The
Negro Tragedian.Carbondale: Southern Illinois Uni-
versity Press, 1968.4 Aldridge, Ira Frederick