Background

Bell, Digby was born in 1849 in Milwaukee. Son of late William J. B. (banker) and Jeanette (Seymour) B.

Education

Family removed to New York, 1854. Collegiate education. Engaged in stock brokerage business: later passenger agent White Star Line.

Sang in concerts as amateur, studied singing at Naples, Italy, 1871-1876.

Career

Debut on Island of Malta, in “La Sonnambula,” 1876. Sang leading baritone rôles, in “Faust,” “Il Trovatore,” “Linda,” “Traviata,” Naples. Concertized in the United States and Canada.

First appeared in comic opera in “Pinafore” at Montreal. Toured United States and Canada in various comic operas. Member Augustin Daly Company, New York, for 3 seasons, playing dramatic rôles.

Later with McCaull Opera Company, Duff Opera Company, and leading comedian with Lillian Russell Opera Company, etc. Starred in “Tar and Tartar,” “Jupiter,” “A Midnight Bell,” “The Hoosier Doctor,” “The Education of Mr. Pipp,” as the admiral in “Pinafore,” also in “Patience,” “Pirates of Penzance,” “Ruddigod,” “Indiana,” as Koko in “The Mikado,” as Nathaniel Berry in “Shore Acres,” etc.

Starred in vaudeville, “It Happened in Topeka,” for 2 seasons. Later starring in motion photo plays.

Membership

Member Augustin Daly Company, New York, for 3 seasons, playing dramatic rôles.

Connections

Married Laura Joyce, actress, 1882 (died 1904).

spouse:

Laura Joyce