British postcard in the Rotary Photographic Series, no. 109b.
British postcard by J.B. & Co. (J. Beagles & Co., London B.C.), no. 19 L. Photo: Ellis and Walery. Sent by mail in 1906.
British postcard by J. Beagles & Co. E.C., no. 622F. Photo: Ellis & Walery.
One of the longest-running musical performances in music history
Charles Hayden Coffin was born in 1862 in Manchester, England. He was the son of American dentist Charles Reuel Coffin and his wife, Sarah Powell Coffin, née Munsey. A few years after his birth, he moved with his parents to the United States temporarily, but after two years, the family returned to England and settled in London.
He attended University College London, where he was head boy in his final year. Then he trained as a singer, even though he had already passed the entrance examination for medical school at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. His singing teacher was Edith Abell, a member of the Royal Choral Society.
In 1883, he made his debut as an amateur at St George's Hall in London, playing Tom Gilroy in the play 'Partners for Life' and Vivid in 'Monsieur Jacques'. He started his professional acting career as John Smith in 'Pocahontas' (1885). He rose to fame in 1886 as Harry Sherwood in the play 'Dorothy'. It became one of the longest-running musical performances in music history at the time, in which he sang the popular song 'Queen of My Heart' with his powerful baritone voice. He cemented his fame in such operettas as 'Doris' (1889) and 'Captain Therese' (1890).
While he was engaged for a season in New York City in 1892/1893, Hayden Coffin co-starred in several productions with soprano Lillian Russell. He also starred in several pantomimes. In 1892, he married the German-born singer Adeline Randegger in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was the daughter of the landscape painter Friedrich August de Leuw and the divorced wife of the music director Alberto Randegger. In 1893, he was hired by British theatre impresario George Edwardes. He performed in a series of extraordinarily successful musical comedies at Edwardes' theatres. These included 'A Gaiety Girl' (1893), 'An Artist's Model' (1895), 'The Geisha' (1896), 'San Toy' (1899) and 'A Country Girl' (1903). He also appeared in 'Veronique' (1904), starred as 'Tom Jones' (1907), and played Captain Charteris in 'The Quaker Girl' (1910).
In his later years, Charles Hayden Coffin turned to serious drama, including Shakespearean roles, such as Feste in 'Twelfth Night' at the Savoy Theatre in 1912. He also made occasional appearances in musicals such as 'Young England' (1916) and 'As You Were' (1918). Hayden Coffen also recorded several songs from 'Young England' for the Gramophone Company.
British postcard in the Rotary Photographic Series, no. 109D.
British postcard in the Rotary Photographic Series, no. 109E.
British postcard by Rotary Photo EC, no. 109T. Photo: Ellis & Walery.
A vamp who breaks a major's marriage and sends his daughter to a convent
Thanks to his huge popularity Charles Hayden Coffin also was able to act in films but the stage remained his domain. In 1900, he already acted in front of the camera of the British Mutoscope & Biograph Company in the short San Toy (?, 1900) with Marie Tempest. They performed the 'Umbrella Dance', one of the hits of the popular musical comedy 'San Toy', which had been a stage success at Daly's Theatre in London.
Coffin's real film career started 16 years later. He impersonated the role of Major Sterrington opposite Barbara Hoffe as the vamp in It's Always the Woman (Wilfred Noy, 1916). The story deals with a vamp who breaks a major's marriage, weds him, and sends his daughter to a convent where her 'dead' mother is a nun.
Next, Coffin acted opposite Dorothy Fane in The Bigamist (1916), yet the description of this film on IMDb differs from the description in The Moving Picture World. Coffin then starred as a singer in the lost film Queen of My Heart (Albert Ward, 1917). In his last silent film, The Black Spider (William Humphrey, 1920), Coffin had a supporting part opposite Mary Clare and Ronald Colman.
Afterwards, Coffin played a last supporting part as Sir Harry Bumper in the lost, early sound comedy School for Scandal (1930) by Maurice Elvey, starring Basil Gill, Madeleine Carroll, Ian Fleming (the actor, not the writer), and Henry Hewitt. In 1929, he already played Sir Harry in 'The School for Scandal' on stage at the Kingsway Theatre. It is one of the '75 Most Wanted'films listed by the British Film Institute as 'Missing, believed lost'.
C. Hayden Coffin was first engaged to the songwriter Hope Temple but married actress Adeline de Leuw. De Leuw had been divorced by her first husband, the composer Alberto Randegger, on the grounds of her adultery with Coffin. He remained married to Adeline Hayden Coffin till he died. He had a long affair with the semi-professional actress Maud ‘Mamie’ Ella Cohn Christie, sister of the British entrepreneur and racing team owner Jefferson Davis Cohn. During this time, two children were born: Crystal (born 1914) and Errol Hayden Christie (born 1918). In 1935, Coffin died at the age of 73 in Kensington, London. He was buried next to his mother and his father's ashes in a grave in St. John the Baptist Cemetery in Woking, Surrey.
British postcard by Rotary Photo EC, no. 109H. Photo: Hana.
British postcard in the Valentines Series. Photo: Hana.
British postcard in the Rotary Photographic Series, no. 3082, 1904.
British postcard by Rotary Photo, no. 7428 D. Photo: Foulsham & Banfield. Publicity still for the stage play 'Butterflies' with Iris Hoey, Stella St. Audrie, C. Hayden Coffin, John Bardsley, Ada Reeve, and Louis Bradfield. 'Butterflies' was a musical play in three acts by William J. Locke, lyrics by T.H. Read and music by J.A. Robertson. Produced at the Apollo Theatre, London, in 1908.
Sources: John Kenrick (Who's Who in Musicals), Kurt Gänzl (Kurt of Gerolstein), Wikipedia and IMDb.
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