Was Shakespeare the first STAR ACTOR?

Question

"TO THE MEMORY OF MY BELOVED

MASTER WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE,

AND WHAT HE HATH LEFT US

by Ben Jonson [1623]...

...But stay, I see thee in the hemisphere

Advanced, and made a constellation there !

Shine forth, thou Star of Poets, and with rage

Or influence, chide or cheer the drooping stage,

Which, since thy flight from hence, hath mourned like night,

And despairs day, but for thy volume's light."

http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/jonson/benshake.htm

Do you think this usage may have been related to the Super Nova's that appeared within Shakespeare's lifetime?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1604

Answer 1

There were definitely actors before Shakespeare, and I guess I'm sort of confused by your question, but you're not suggesting that there weren't actors before Shakespeare, you're just asking if he was the first big star. Right?

In any case, I would say that there were actors and probably "stars" long before Shakespeare. If you want to find the first "big name" in actors, you can go back to Thespis in Ancient Greece who was said to have been the first actor who stepped out of the chorus and create the "position" of the actor. That's how we get the word "thespian."

For most of the pre-Shakespearian time though, I think the issue wasn't that there weren't well known actors, but that actors had a very different reputation that usually led them to not be respected or not recorded. They either were infami (like actors in the Roman world who couldn't be associated with), or they were priests and eventually parishioners (whose main goals in life were not to be "actors") and finally traveling troupes (during the build up of Miracle, Mystery, and Morality Plays during medieval times). In other words, they weren't really the people who would get written about because they weren't glorified for being actors (like "stars" are today).

I guess something unique to Shakespeare's age (if not the man himself) was the idea of the secular actor not performing a religion-based play. Still though, I think this can be accredited more to the writing and less to the acting. And that's where I think your quote is coming in: Shakespeare is the "Star of Poets" not a "star of the stage." His legacy is not important because he could act, but because he could write, and because he helped to secularize and popularize a form of psychological drama which is still relevant today.

Does that come close to answering what you were asking? I'm still not sure.

Answer 2

As actors goes, you can go a long way back in history to find the first one.

Socrates wrote few plays and had actors.

His follower, Plato, who wrote the fictitious story of Atlantis did use many actors also.

Answer 3

HIS BROTHER EDMUND?????

In all my time acting and interpereting the works of Will, your post is the very first time I have heard ANY reference to William Shakespeare's brother Edmund, who was also an actor.

Are you sure you are not referring to Speed Racer's older brother Rex Racer, who ran away from home years ago?

Answer 4

While your Q is a bit scattered and confusing, in a most direct sense WILLIE was not an actor. Was he a STAR? most definitely, in his own right. He created "stars". He created the essence of theater still emulated today.

   Certainly as an OBSERVER, he was likely intune with the Universe. Was he absorbed in it? One can only guess.

Answer 5

Thespis from ancient greece who first stepped out from the chorus giving the term thespian.