Hamilton Deane (2 December 1879 – 25 October 1958) was an Irish actor, playwright and director. He played a key role in popularising

Bram Stoker Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912), better known by his pen name Bram Stoker, was an Irish novelist who wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. The book is widely considered a milestone in Vampire fiction, and one of t ...

's 1897 novel ''

Dracula ''Dracula'' is an 1897 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. The narrative is Epistolary novel, related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens ...

'' as a 1924 stage play and a 1931 film.

Biography

Deane was born in

New Ross New Ross (, formerly ) is a town in southwest County Wexford, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, on the River Barrow on the border with County Kilkenny, northeast of Waterford. In 2022, it had a population of 8,610, making it the fourth-largest t ...

County Wexford County Wexford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was ba ...

and grew up in Clontarf, a suburb of

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. His family lived close to the families of both Bram Stoker and Florence Balcombe (Stoker's wife), and his mother had been acquainted with Bram Stoker in her youth.Skal (1990) p. 22 Deane entered the theater as a young man, first appearing in 1899 with the

Henry Irving Sir Henry Irving (6 February 1838 – 13 October 1905), christened John Henry Brodribb, sometimes known as J. H. Irving, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility ( ...

Company (Stoker was stage manager for Irving for many years). Even before he formed his own troupe in the early 1920s, Deane had been thinking about bringing ''Dracula'' to the stage. Stoker had attempted this in 1897 but the verdict from Irving consigned it to the waste-paper basket. Unable to find a scriptwriter to take on the project, Deane wrote the play himself in a four-week period of inactivity while he was suffering with a severe cold. He then contacted Florence Stoker, Bram's widow, and negotiated a deal for the dramatic rights.Raymond T. McNally, Radu Florescu: In Search of Dracula. Haughton Mifflin Harcourt, 1994. p. 157 Deane re-imagined Count Dracula as a more urbane and theatrically acceptable character who could plausibly enter London society. It was Deane's idea that the count should wear a tuxedo and stand-up collar, and a flowing cape which concealed Dracula while he slipped through a trap-door in the stage floor, giving the impression that he had disappeared.Skal (1990) p. 73 Deane also arranged to have a uniformed nurse available at performances, ready to administer smelling salts should anyone faint. Deane's play premiered at the Grand Theatre,

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

on 15 May 1924. Despite critics' misgivings, the audiences loved it. With

Raymond Huntley Horace Raymond Huntley (23 April 1904 – 15 June 1990) was an English actor who appeared in dozens of British films from the 1930s to the 1970s. He also appeared in the ITV period drama '' Upstairs, Downstairs'' as the pragmatic family soli ...

as the Count and Deane as

Van Helsing Professor Abraham Van Helsing () is a fictional character from the 1897 gothic horror novel ''Dracula'' written by Bram Stoker. Van Helsing is a Dutch polymath doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, partly attested by the P ...

, it was a huge success and toured for years.James Craig Holte: Dracula in the Dark. Greenwood, 1997. p. 35 Deane had initially intended to play the role of the count himself.Skal (1990) p. 70 When the play crossed the Atlantic in 1927, the role of Dracula was taken by the then-unknown Hungarian actor Béla Lugosi. For its US debut, ''Dracula'' was rewritten by the American playwright John L. Balderston. The show ran for a year on Broadway and for two more years on tour, breaking all previous records for any show put on tour in the United States. It is the Deane/Balderston interpretation upon which the classic

Tod Browning Tod Browning (born Charles Albert Browning Jr.; July 12, 1880 – October 6, 1962) was an American film director, film actor, screenwriter, vaudeville performer, and carnival sideshow and circus entertainer. He directed a number of films of var ...

film ''

'' (1931) was based.

Works

* Deane, Hamilton, and John L. Balderston. ''Dracula: The Vampire Play in Three Acts''. New York: Samuel French, 1927.

References

Cited text

* ''Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen''. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1990.

Bibliography

* ''Dracula (The Original 1931 Shooting Script)''. Atlantic City, NJ: Magic Image Filmbooks, 1990. * Glut, Donald F. ''The Dracula Book''. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1975. * Skal, David J., ed. ''Dracula: The Ultimate, Illustrated Edition of the World-Famous Vampire Play''. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993.

External links

The Dracula Guide
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deane, Hamilton Irish male dramatists and playwrights Male actors from Dublin (city) 1880 births 1958 deaths 20th-century Irish dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Irish male writers