Walter Clun (died 2 August 1664) was an English actor of the 17th century. His career spanned the difficult period when the theatres were closed during the

English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...

and the

Interregnum An interregnum (plural interregna or interregnums) is a period of revolutionary breach of legal continuity, discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order. Archetypally, it was the period of time between the reign of one m ...

, from 1642 to 1660. According to James Wright's ''

Historia Histrionica ''Historia Histrionica'' is a 1699 literary work by James Wright (1643-1713), on the subject of theatre in England in the seventeenth century. It is an essential resource for information on the actors and theatrical life of the period, providing ...

'' (

1699 Events January–March * January 5 – A violent earthquake damages the city of Batavia on the Indonesian island of Java, killing at least 28 people. * January 20 – The Parliament of England (under Tory dominance) limits the size of ...

), Clun and Charles Hart were

boy players A boy player was a male child or teenager who performed in Medieval and English Renaissance playing companies. Some boy players worked for adult companies and performed the female roles, since women were not allowed to perform on the English stag ...

together with the King's Men in the years prior to the theatre closure. Clun was a member of a group of English actors who performed on the Continent, mainly in

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, between 1644 and 1646; he was also one of the former King's Men who tried to restart the company in December 1648, despite the parliamentarian regime's hostility to theatre. (The effort was not successful.) In the Restoration era, Clun gained particular notice as the

Iago Iago () is a fictional character in Shakespeare's '' Othello'' (c. 1601–1604). Iago is the play's main antagonist and Othello's standard-bearer. He is the husband of Emilia who is in turn the attendant of Othello's wife Desdemona. Iago ha ...

Nicholas Burt Nicholas Burt (1621 ? — after 1689), or Birt or Burght among other variants, was a prominent English actor of the seventeenth century. In a long career, he was perhaps best known as the first actor to play the role of Othello in the Restora ...

's Othello in the earliest Restoration production of Shakespeare's play in 1660. Clun was among the thirteen actors who were initial sharers in the newly organized

King's Company The King's Company was one of two enterprises granted the rights to mount theatrical productions in London, after the London theatre closure 1642, London theatre closure had been lifted at the start of the English Restoration. It existed from 166 ...

in 1661. In addition to Iago, Clun was strongly associated with the roles of

Falstaff Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays ''Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', w ...

, Bessus in

Beaumont and Fletcher Beaumont and Fletcher were the English dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays, which are a form of drama that primarily consists of dialogue between characters and is intended for theatrical performance rather t ...

's ''

A King and No King ''A King and No King'' is a Jacobean era stage play, a tragicomedy written by Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher and first published in 1619. It has traditionally been among the most highly praised and popular works in the canon of Fletcher a ...

'', Smug in ''

The Merry Devil of Edmonton ''The Merry Devil of Edmonton'' is an Elizabethan-era stage play; a comedy about a magician, Peter Fabell, nicknamed the Merry Devil. It was at one point attributed to William Shakespeare, but is now considered part of the Shakespeare Apocryph ...

'', and Subtle in Jonson's ''

The Alchemist An alchemist is a person who practices alchemy. Alchemist or Alchemyst may also refer to: Books and stories * ''The Alchemist'' (novel), the translated title of a 1988 allegorical novel by Paulo Coelho * ''The Alchemist'' (play), a play by Ben ...

''. He also played Cacafogo in Fletcher's ''

Rule a Wife and Have a Wife ''Rule a Wife and Have a Wife'' is a late Jacobean stage comedy written by John Fletcher. It was first performed in 1624 and first published in 1640. It is a comedy with intrigue that tells the story of two couples that get married with false ...

''. Clun may have reached the peak of his career in the title role in Fletcher's '' The Humorous Lieutenant''; the King's Company played that drama for twelve days straight when they opened the lavish new Theatre Royal in

Drury Lane Drury Lane is a street on the boundary between the Covent Garden and Holborn areas of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of London Borough of Camden, Camden and the southern part in the City o ...

1663 Events January–March * January 10 – The Royal African Company is granted a Royal Charter by Charles II of England. * January 23 – The Treaty of Ghilajharighat is signed in India between representatives of the Mughal ...

. If so, his peak did not last for long: Clun was killed during a robbery near

Kentish Town Kentish Town is an area of northwest London, England, in the London Borough of Camden, immediately north of Camden Town, close to Hampstead Heath. Kentish Town likely derives its name from Ken-ditch or Caen-ditch, meaning the "bed of a waterw ...

on the night of 2 August 1664. He was wounded in the arm by the thieves, bound hand and foot, and left in a ditch to bleed to death.

Samuel Pepys Samuel Pepys ( ; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English writer and Tories (British political party), Tory politician. He served as an official in the Navy Board and Member of Parliament (England), Member of Parliament, but is most r ...

, who had a strong admiration for Clun's acting, visited the spot of the murder three days after it occurred. He also reminisced in his Diary about Clun's skill onstage. (Pepys criticized

Michael Mohun Michael Mohun (1616? – buried 11 October 1684) was a leading English actor both before and after the 1642–60 closing of the theatres. Mohun began his stage career as a boy player filling female roles; he was part of Christopher Beeston's the ...

, the actor who took over the role of Iago, for not being as good in it as Clun had been.) After Clun's death, an anonymous verse elegy was published in his memory. The poet reminds his readers that Clun's performances in female roles a quarter-century earlier had "made us weep, at seeming sorrow swell, / To see and hear like truth a fiction fell."

John Aubrey John Aubrey (12 March 1626 – 7 June 1697) was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He was a pioneer archaeologist, who recorded (often for the first time) numerous megalithic and other field monuments in southern England ...

mentioned Clun in his famous ''

Brief Lives ''Brief Lives'' is a collection of short biographies written by John Aubrey (1626–1697) in the last decades of the 17th century. Writing Aubrey initially began collecting biographical material to assist the Oxford scholar Anthony Wood, who ...

''. Aubrey wrote that "Ben Jonson had one eye lower than the other, and bigger, like Clun, the player; perhaps he begot Clun."Quoted in: Edwin Nunzeger, ''A Dictionary of Actors and of Others Associated with the Representation of Plays in England Before 1642'', New Haven, Yale University Press, 1929; p. 95 (spelling and punctuation modernized).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clun, Walter 17th-century English male actors 1664 deaths Year of birth unknown King's Men (playing company) English murder victims People murdered in London