Otis Skinner

Otis Skinner was a popular American stage actor active during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Otis A. Skinner was born on June 28, 1858 in Cambridge, Massachusetts the middle of three boys raised by Charles and Cornelia Skinner. He was later brought up in Hartford, Connecticut where Charles Skinner served as a Universalist minister. His older brother, Charles Montgomery Skinner, became a noted journalist and critic in New York, while his younger brother William was an artist. Skinner was educated in Hartford with an eye towards a career in commerce but a visit to the theater left him stagestruck. He secured his fathers blessing for a theatrical career, and his father not only approved but also obtained from P. T. Barnum an introduction to William Pleater Davidge. Davidge employed him at eight dollars a week, and Skinners career was launched. In the latter half of the 1870s, he played various bit roles in stock companies, and alongside stars such as John Edward McCullough. He built up his repertoire for several years in New York and Boston, including three years with Lawrence Ba

Source: Wikipedia