Thomas A. Wise was born on March 23, 1865, in Faversham, England, son of Daniel Wise and Harriet Potts. His father was a sea captain, who died before Tom's birth. His widow emigrated to America three years later, and Tom was reared in California, earning his own living, he later declared, from the time he was nine.
He began to act at eighteen, picking up what jobs he could on the coast, in variety shows. On August 27, 1883, while he was traveling with "Ingham's Combination Troupe" (seven people), the coach which carried them rolled down an embankment in the mountains. In 1885 William Gillette saw him act in San Francisco, and brought him east in The Private Secretary, but he got no nearer Broadway than the Grand Opera House on Eighth Avenue. He did not reach Broadway till 1888, when he appeared there in Lost in New York. From that time, he was a familiar figure in the New York theatre, filling a niche of his own, in farce-comedy especially. During the nineties he was often seen in the farces of George Broadhurst, and in 1899 appeared in The Wrong Mr. Wright in London. Among the plays he acted in during this decade were Gloriana (1892), On the Mississippi (1894), The War of Wealth, The House That Jack Built, and Are You a Mason? In 1901 he acted with Arnold Daly at Wallack's Theatre. The appearances with Daly were followed by Vivian's Papas (1903), Mrs. Temple's Telegram and The Prince Chap (1905), and The Little Cherub (1906), with Hattie Williams. In 1907 he was in a musical comedy called The Lady from Lane's, and the following season in Miss Hook of Holland. In 1908 he appeared as co-star with Douglas Fairbanks in a play written by himself and Harrison Rhodes, A Gentleman from Mississippi, a political comedy. He then wrote, again with Rhodes, and acted in a play called An Old New Yorker (1911). In the same year he and Rhodes wrote and produced a play called The Greatest Show on Earth, which was followed by a revival of Lights o' London. In the autumn of 1911 he acted with John Barrymore in Uncle Sam, in 1912 in Captain Whittaker's Place, by Joseph Lincoln, in 1913 in The Silver Wedding, and in 1914 in Edward Sheldon's dramatization of The Song of Songs. In 1916 he was back in a more congenial play, taking the place of James K. Hackett as Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor, when Hackett, who had produced the play with elaborate sets by Joseph Urban, fell ill. After co-starring with William Courtenay in 1917 in Lee Dodd's Comedy, Pals First, in September 1918 he realized an ambition to impersonate P. T. Barnum, in a play called Mr. Barnum, written by himself and Harrison Rhodes. Later appearances were in Cappy Ricks (1919), as Sir Oliver in the Players' Club revival of The School for Scandal (June 1923), as Sir Anthony in The Rivals, with Mrs. Fiske (1924 - 1925), in The Adorable Liar (1926), and with Eleanor Painter in The Nightingale (1927). His later years were made difficult by illness. He made his last appearance in Chicago, in Behold This Dreamer, on October 31, 1927. He died on March 21, 1928, in New York.
From 1926 to 1928, Thomas A. Wise was a member of The Lambs, a social club in New York City for actors, songwriters and others involved in the theatre.
Thomas A. Wise was a fat man, with a fat man's voice and the traditional fat man's amiability.
On November 11, 1895, Thomas A. Wise married Gertrude Whitty, an Englishborn actress.
