LUDWIG

See also:

• LUDWIG DESSOIR (1810-1874)

DESSOIR (1810-1874)  , German actor, whose name was originally Leopold Dessauer, was born on the 15th of December 1810 at Posen, the son of a Jewish tradesman . He made his first appearance on the stage there in 1824 in a small part . After some experience at the theatre in Posen and on tour, he was engaged at Leipzig from 1834 to 1836 . Then he was attached to the municipal theatre of Breslau, and in 1837 appeared at Prague, Briinn, Vienna and Budapest, where he accepted an engagement which lasted until 1839 . He succeeded Karl Devrient at Karlsruhe, and went in 1847 to Berlin, where he acted Othello and Hamlet with such extraordinary success that he received a permanent engagement at the Hof-theater . From 1849 to 1872, when he retired on a pension, he played Ito parts, frequently on tour, and in 1853 acting in London . He died on the 3oth of December 1874 in Berlin . Dessoir was twice married; his first wife, Theresa, a popular actress (1810-1866), was separated from him a year after marriage; his second wife went mad on the death of her child . By his first wife Dessoir had one son, the actor Ferdinand Dessoir (1836-1892) . In spite of certain physical disabilities Ludwig Dessoir's genius raised him to the first rank of actora, especially as interpreter of Shakespeare's characters . G . H .

Lewes placed Dessoir's Othello above that of Kean, and the Athenaeum preferred him in this part to Brooks or Macready .