Harry Watkins (January 14, 1825 â€" February 5, 1894) was an American
actor, theatre manager and playwright, whose career spanned the latter
half of the nineteenth century. He is best remembered for his diary,
kept from 1845 to 1860, which is considered a rare source of firsthand
information about theater in the U.S. during the antebellum
period.Watkins was born in New York. He began his acting career in
1845 and, although he was constantly employed as an actor for nearly
five decades, he never achieved widespread fame. On February 5, 1854,
Watkins married Harriet M. Secor with whom he had two children. It is
not yet known what became of Harriet and their children, but in 1860,
Watkins married English-born actress and singer Rosina Shaw (widow of
Charles Howard), who used the stage names Rose Howard and Rose Shaw.
Watkins became manager of P. T. Barnum's American Museum's theatrical
enterprises in 1857, where he wrote, presented, and acted in, among
other things, The Pioneer Patriot. He and his wife, Rose, performed in
England from 1860 to 1863. He was described by the British press as
"decidedly one of the best delineators of Negro character", but in
general his wife had more success in England.Watkins played such roles
as Edward Middleton in The Drunkard, Wool in his own adaptation of The
Hidden Hand, and Titus in Brutus by John Howard Payne. He was the
author of more than 25 plays by 1889. He was also actively engaged in
politics, often expressing his views in his diary as well as in
bulletins, such as How Shall I Vote? (1885), and in his book His Worst
Enemy: Photographed from Life In New York (1889).Watkins is
fictionalized in the Martin Scorsese film Gangs of New York, in a
scene where The Five Points Mission presents a dramatization of
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Barnum had presented H. J.
Conway's popular version of Uncle Tom's Cabin at the American Museum
in the 1850s, which varied from the novel especially in ending
happily. Harry Watkins (actor) Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter