Background
Edwin Arden was born on February 4, 1864 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, the son of Richard Smith and Mary Berkeley (Hunter) Arden.
Actor playwright theatre manager
Edwin Arden was born on February 4, 1864 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, the son of Richard Smith and Mary Berkeley (Hunter) Arden.
Arden received a common-school education.
After school he went West and became successively mine-helper, cowboy, railroad brakeman, clerk, reporter, and theatre manager. He made his début as an actor in Chicago in 1882 as a member of Thomas W. Keene's Shakespearian company. During the three years following, he played in stock as member of the Boston Museum and Madison Square Theatre (New York) companies.
In 1883 he wrote several plays, some in collaboration, among the most successful of which were The Eagle's Nest, Raglan's Way, and Barred Out. He starred in these plays for nine seasons and then, in 1895, joined the company of William H. Crane, taking among other leading rôles that of Mason Hix in The Governor of Kentucky. Then came a season with the Julia Arthur company, when he played Sir John Oxen in A Lady of Quality in support of the star.
In 1898, he played Oliver West, the young husband in Because She Loved Him So, and the following year returned to starring in a play from his own pen called Zorah.
On October 22, 1900, he appeared with Maude Adams at the Knickerbocker Theatre, New York City, playing Prince Metternich in that actress's production of Rostand's L'Aiglon, his acting as the famous Austrian diplomat attracting much attention.
The following year he acted with Sadie Martinot in The Marriage Game and was also seen in the Bellew-Mannering revival of The Lady of Lyons.
During the season of 1902 he appeared in The Ninety and Nine, and also in the all-star cast of Romeo and Juliet at the Knickerbocker Theatre, New York.
In 1904, he was with Bertha Kalich, playing the rôle of Louis in Fedora, and the year following he was with James K. Hackett in The House of Silence.
After a short time spent in vaudeville, he again appeared as a star at the Powers Theatre, Chicago, in the drama Told in the Hills. Later, he had his own stock company in Washington, D. C.
On February 21, 1883, he was married to Agnes Ann Eagleson Keene. Their only child, daughter Mildred Arden, also became an actor.
