Richard Golden

Richard Golden (1854–1909) was an American stage actor and comedian born in Bangor, Maine, the son of an Irish immigrant who worked as a dry goods merchant. At the age of 13, Golden left home to join Allie's Allied Shows, a Mexican circus touring the United States. His Broadway career spanned from 1898 to 1907, during which he appeared in productions including Common Sense Bracket, The Bad Samaritan, The Princess Pat, and the musical The Tourists.

Golden's most celebrated creation was the character Old Jed Prouty, a comedic Maine Yankee tavern keeper set in the coastal town of Bucksport — the birthplace of his wife, actor and singer Dora Wiley, and near Golden's own hometown of Bangor. Written with collaborator William Gill, Old Jed Prouty premiered at New York's Union Square Theatre on May 14, 1889, and later moved to the Harlem Opera House that same year. The play is credited with helping to establish and spread the genre of Down East humor across the country, and made Golden one of the most recognized comedians of his generation. Wiley, who had a singing role in the production, became known as "The Sweet Singer of Maine." The play began a national tour in 1890, and Golden would ultimately perform the role of Prouty more than 3,000 times in venues across the eastern United States.

Before Old Jed Prouty brought Golden national recognition, he had toured with Wiley as a member of the Dora Wiley Opera Company. The company encountered financial difficulties and became stranded in Albany, New York in 1885, during which time Golden also contracted malaria. The couple's circumstances improved considerably by 1888, when Wiley performed "Home, Sweet Home" before President Grover Cleveland at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

Wiley divorced Golden in 1892, married her business manager, and returned to Bangor. Following her departure, Golden closed Old Jed Prouty by 1893 and joined the Pauline Hall Opera Company at the Tremont Theatre in Boston. His personal fortunes declined sharply in the mid-1890s: by 1895 he appeared in debtor's court stating he had no money, and the following year he was admitted to the alcoholic's ward at Bellevue Hospital. By the end of that year, however, he had returned to the stage with a revival of Old Jed Prouty. Throughout the remainder of the 1890s, newspaper accounts alternately described him as seriously ill and as drawing large, enthusiastic audiences in comic roles. By the close of the decade he had established himself as one of the most prominent stars of American comic opera. Around 1908, Golden also appeared in the London production of The Dollar Princess, a German light opera.

Golden died suddenly in 1909 aboard a friend's houseboat in Gravesend Bay, New York, while preparing to travel back to Maine. He is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Bangor. His daughter Bernice pursued a professional acting career as well, though she was seriously injured by falling scenery during a performance of The Greyhound at New York's Astor Theatre and was unable to work for several years. She returned to the stage in 1915, appearing first in Chicago and later in Alice in Wonderland at New York's Booth Theatre. A hotel in Bucksport, Maine, bears the name The Jed Prouty Tavern in honor of Golden's character; Golden himself had worked briefly as a clerk at the same establishment, then called The Robinson House, years before beginning his professional acting career.