Dan Quinlan

Dan Quinlan, born Daniel Cullinan on April 21, 1863, in Elmira, New York, was an American actor whose career spanned minstrel shows, vaudeville, and legitimate theatre from 1883 until his retirement in 1932. The son of Irish immigrants John and Margaret Cullinan, he worked at the Elmira Iron Rolling Mill Company before entering show business.

Quinlan launched his stage career in 1883 with Barlow, Wilson and Co.'s Mammoth Minstrels. Over the following decades he performed with several other minstrel organizations, among them companies run by Al G. Field and McIntyre & Heath. Around 1905 he shifted his focus to vaudeville, spending five years as one half of the duo Quinlan and Mack alongside partner Keller Mack before the act dissolved in 1910.

His later career brought him to Broadway, where he appeared in productions between 1916 and 1922. He played Hiram J. Kidder in Molly O', a musical with book and lyrics by Harry B. Smith and music by Carl Woess, which opened at the Cort Theatre in 1916. That same season he took on multiple roles in The Show of Wonders, Harold Atteridge and Sigmund Romberg's revue that ran at the Winter Garden Theatre from 1916 into 1917. In 1919 he portrayed Col. Winslow in Hello, Alexander, with music by Jean Schwartz and lyrics by Alfred Bryan, at the 44th Street Theatre. His final Broadway credit was Red Pepper in 1922 at the Shubert Theatre, where he played Col. Shelby Bright.

After retiring from the stage in 1932, Quinlan returned to Elmira, where he worked as an acting coach and directed amateur productions. At the time of his death, his wife headed the drama department at Elmira College; the couple had six daughters together. Quinlan died on July 12, 1940, during surgery at a hospital in Elmira, at the age of 77.