Eddie Dowling

Eddie Dowling, born Joseph Nelson Goucher on December 11, 1889, in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, was an American actor, director, playwright, screenwriter, composer, and theatrical producer whose Broadway career spanned from 1919 to 1951. The fourteenth of seventeen children, he took his professional surname from his mother's maiden name, Bridget Mary Dowling, who was born in Smithfield, Rhode Island. His father, Charles Goucher, was a textile worker of French-Canadian descent born in St. Marcel, Province of Québec, Canada, while his mother was of Irish descent. Dowling's formal education reached only the third grade, and he worked as a cabin boy and music hall singer before entering the theater professionally.

Dowling launched his performing career in vaudeville with the Homan Stock Company at the Scenic Temple theatre in Providence, Rhode Island. His Broadway debut came in 1919 with The Velvet Lady, and he went on to appear in numerous productions over the following decades, including the Ziegfeld Follies of 1918, the musicals Honeymoon Lane, Sidewalks of New York, and Sally, Irene and Mary. He also worked as a composer in addition to his performing work.

The role for which Dowling is best remembered is Tom Wingfield in the original production of Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, in which he appeared opposite Laurette Taylor and Julie Haydon. He produced the play's initial Chicago run in 1944 before bringing it to Broadway. Beyond performing, Dowling pursued a political career, seeking the 1934 Democratic nomination for the United States Senate seat from Rhode Island.

Dowling was married to Rachel Rice Dooley, a Scottish-born actress and stage performer known for physical comedy. The couple had two children, Jack and Maxine. Their son Jack, who served as Time magazine's Buenos Aires bureau chief, was killed in a plane crash in Brazil in 1955. Dowling died on February 18, 1976, at a nursing home in Smithfield, Rhode Island, at the age of 86. His widow died in 1984 at the age of 95 in East Hampton, Long Island, New York.