William J. Le Moyne

William J. Le Moyne (April 29, 1831 – November 6, 1905) was an American actor born in Boston, Massachusetts, whose stage career spanned roughly five decades and included a notable presence on Broadway between 1877 and 1901. He is credited with playing Deacon Perry in the first stage adaptation of Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Before his professional debut, Le Moyne participated in amateur theater productions in Boston at around the age of fifteen, and may have briefly worked as a silversmith. His professional career began on May 10, 1852, at Portland, Maine, where he played an officer in The Lady of Lyons, a romantic drama by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Shortly afterward he joined the repertory company at Peale's Museum in Troy, New York, as a utility player earning six dollars a week, a rate later raised to eight dollars after he demonstrated facility with old man roles. That company, managed largely by George C. Howard and his associates, staged the first production of Uncle Tom's Cabin on September 27, 1852, at Peale's Museum. The play ran for approximately one hundred performances, an exceptional run for a city the size of Troy at the time. Le Moyne's subsequent tour with the production helped establish him as an actor of national standing.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Le Moyne enlisted as a first lieutenant with Company B of the 28th Massachusetts Volunteers, serving under fellow actor Lawrence Barrett. When Barrett resigned his command, Le Moyne took charge of the company, which suffered severe losses in engagements in South Carolina and Virginia. In September 1862, Le Moyne was seriously wounded at the Battle of South Mountain and could not return to active service. Congress later granted him a retroactive promotion to captain, backdated to the point at which he had assumed command of Company B.

Le Moyne returned to the stage in 1863 and remained active until 1901. Over the course of his career he performed with companies led by Edwin Booth, Edwin Forrest, and Charles Fletcher or Charles Fechter, and also worked within producer Daniel Frohman's Lyceum Theatre Company. He appeared in multiple productions drawn from the works of Charles Dickens, taking on roles including Fagin, Captain Cuttle, Uriah Heep, Squeers, Plummer, Dick Swiveller, and Caleb. In productions of Shakespeare's Hamlet, he is said to have played every significant male role except that of the prince himself. His Broadway credits included Don Caesar's Return, The Merchant of Venice, Naughty Anthony, Barbara Frietchie, and Catherine, among other productions. Heart trouble prompted his retirement from the stage in 1901, following his appearance in support of James K. Hackett in Don Caesar's Return.

Le Moyne's first marriage, to actress Sarah Le Moyne, ended in divorce in 1886 or 1887. In June 1888 he married actress Sarah Emma Cowell, who subsequently pursued a successful Broadway career under the name Sarah Le Moyne. The two remained together until his death.

Away from the theater, Le Moyne was a collector of wide-ranging interests. His home contained paintings of Chinese actors, antique children's shoes, smoking pipes, an idol from a Chinese temple, old plaques, and artifacts from ancient American and Asian cultures, alongside works by contemporary American artists. He also assembled a large collection of horseshoes, with a particular attachment to one found on Thirteenth Street in New York City on a Friday with seven nails still in place. His most prized collection consisted of old and rare books accumulated over a lifetime. He was additionally known as a watercolor painter.

Le Moyne died on November 6, 1905, after several years of declining health, at a friend's residence in Inwood-on-the-Hudson, a neighborhood on the northern shore of Manhattan Island.