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Dion Boucicault (1820/22–1890)
Boucicault, Dion (bö’sē-kō). A British dramatist and actor; born in Dublin, Dec. 26, 1820/22; died in New York, Sept. 18, 1890. His first drama, ‘London Assurance,’ was written before he was nineteen years of age, and made him famous. He also attained celebrity as an actor and manager in England and the United States; established a school for acting, and produced about 300 dramas, many of which were original and many adaptations from the French. He dramatized Washington Irving’s ‘Rip Van Winkle,’ which Joseph Jefferson enlarged; and produced a series of Irish dramas which were extraordinarily popular, such as: ‘The Colleen Bawn’ (1860); ‘Arrah-na-Pogue’ (1864); and ‘The Shaughraun’ (1875), in which he played the principal parts. ‘Old Heads on Young Shoulders’; ‘The Corsican Brothers’; ‘The Streets of London’; ‘Flying Scud’; and ‘After Dark,’ were among his later productions.