George Curtis Fawcett Rowe (24 July 1832 – 29 August 1889), was an English actor, manager and dramatist, whose career began in Australia as George Fawcett; later he was billed as George F. Rowe and worked in Britain and America, where he died. Well known for his portrayal of Wilkins Micawber in his own version of David Copperfield, he was a talented, but "impatient", playwright and actor.
Early life
Rowe was born in Exeter, Devon, the eldest son of printmaker and watercolor artist George Rowe Sr (1796–1864) and his wife Elizabeth. In 1834 the family moved to Cheltenham, where Rowe was educated. Rowe Sr traveled to Australia in 1852, continuing to the Ballarat and Bendigo Goldfields region of Victoria, where he made a good living selling paintings to gold diggers who had become suddenly wealthy. He returned to England in 1859.
Australia and New Zealand
Rowe may have accompanied his father to Australia in 1852; other references have him joining him there in November 1853. He was also a capable artist, signing his work "George Fawcett" to distinguish it from his father's. He applied for a job as scene painter at the Queen's Theatre, Melbourne, but was not successful. He returned to Bendigo, where he started with the new Cairncross's Theatre in 1854, first as a painter, then as an actor, playing Jeremy Diddler in Raising the Wind. In February 1856 he became a scene designer for Henry Coleman's Criterion Theatre, next door to Cairncross's.
He returned to Melbourne in 1856 and soon had a success in The Death of Marlowe, by Richard Henry Horne. He became manager of the Theatre Royal together with Henry Edmunds. He then joined John Black's company at the Princess's Theatre, supporting the sisters Josephine "Joey" and Adelaide Gougenheim. He was praised in 1857 in the role of Percy Ardent in Boucicault's Irish Heiress. In December 1858 he played the name part in an adaptation of Nicholas Nickleby, opposite Edmund Holloway's John Brodie, followed by Cameralzerman and Badoura. He created popular impersonations of famous people, but he had ambitions to be taken seriously as an actor. He played Plumper in Cool as a Cucumber, by Blanchard Jerrold, Dazzle in London Assurance, Triplet in Masks and Faces, and Salem Scudder in The Octoroon in 1861, starring Madame Marie Duret, under Rowe's management.
Between 1859 and 1863 he was almost exclusively attached to the Princess's Theatre, as actor, manager and dramatist, writing numerous Victorian burlesques, pantomimes and other pieces. In 1862 he first produced his own stage version of David Copperfield, in which he took the role of Wilkins Micawber; he reproduced this piece numerous times, interpreting and playing the character of Micawber so effectively that in later years theatre managers could not imagine him in any other part, to the detriment of his career. In 1863, he wrote a short musical The Captain of the Vulture (based on the novel by Mary Elizabeth Braddon), which played as an afterpiece to Tom and Jerry, or Life in London. In another of his musical afterpieces, The Chamber of Horrors, Rowe played several characters that featured in a local waxworks exhibition.
He left for New Zealand in December 1863, leaving the unprofitable Princess's Theatre vacant for several weeks. In July 1865 Rowe and Mr and Mrs Charles Dillon left New Zealand for Callao, Peru, and then appeared at the Teatro Segura opera house in Lima.
Later career
He then continued to New York where, on 26 February 1866 he appeared at the Olympic Theatre, under the management of Mrs. John Wood, playing Sir Charles Coldstream in Used Up, adapted by Charles Mathews from Boucicault's translation of the French comédie en vaudeville L'homme blasé by Duvert and Vauxroussel. Whereas he had appeared as George Fawcett in Australia, he now used his surname, Rowe, on stage. His play Fifth Avenue was a success, starring George Rignold, and another original drama, The Geneva Cross was also a success. It was later played at the Theatre Royal, Melbourne, on 22 April 1874. Fifth Avenue later became New Babylon.