Background
Hermann Vezin was born on March 2, 1829, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He was the son of Emilie (Kalinsky) and Charles Henri Vezin, a merchant of French ancestry.
Hermann Vezin was born on March 2, 1829, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
He was the son of Emilie (Kalinsky) and Charles Henri Vezin, a merchant of French ancestry.
Vezin was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1847 with the degree of A. B. , and in 1850 received the degree of M. A.
In 1850, Vezin went to England, bent upon becoming an actor in spite of the traditional parental opposition, and made his first appearance in that country at the Theatre Royal in York. After various provincial engagements, during which he rose from the playing of minor roles to the acting of such leading characters as Richelieu, Sir Edward Mortimer, Claude Melnotte, and Young Norval, he made his London debut in 1852.
Except for a brief professional tour of the United States in 1857-58, he remained on the British stage for the rest of his long life, sometimes in support of stars, sometimes at the head of his own companies, and sometimes in the direction of theatres. He acted with Fechter, Samuel Phelps, Henry Irving, and in 1878 played Dr. Primrose in support of Ellen Terry in W. G. Wills's successful play, Olivia, dramatized from The Vicar of Wakefield.
In 1889, he was called upon by Irving to appear as Macbeth at the Lyceum Theatre in his stead in an emergency, receiving high praise from him and substantial acknowledgment in the form of a diamond ring and a check for £120. Not imposing in stature, Vezin was described by Sir J. Forbes-Robertson as a "bright and dapper little man, then (1874) at the height of his popularity, " and as "learned and dictatorial on the art of acting".
During his long career, Vezin acted many hundred characters in every type of play, among the most important being Sir Giles Overreach in A New Way to Pay Old Debts, Hamlet, Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor (with Phelps as Falstaff), Jaques in As You Like It (with Mr. and Mrs. Kendal), Dan'l Druce, James Harebell in The Man o'Airlie, and Lesurques and Dubosc in The Courier of Lyons.
Vezin was scholarly and intellectual in his impersonations rather than thrilling and inspiring and had a somewhat hard and formal delivery. Yet so excellent an authority as Henry Morley declares in his Journal of a London Playgoer that he was "a quietly good actor, who can rightly speak blank verse and give true but enforced expression to a poet's thought. "
His appearances on the stage during his later years were only occasional, his time being occupied in giving lessons to stage aspirants, and in appearing at recitals and readings. His last acting was as Old Rowley in Sir Herbert Tree's production of The School for Scandal at His Majesty's Theatre in April 1909. He had been active on the British stage for nearly sixty years and had been a resident of London, where he died, for the greater part of that period.
In 1863, Vezin married Jane Elizabeth Thompson, who as Mrs. Charles Young had made a reputation as an actress both in Australia and in England, and he acted in many plays with her between their marriage and her death in 1902. Vezin had a son who also became an actor.
