Hopkins, Arthur, 1878-1950

Arthur Hopkins, theatrical producer and director for the New York stage, was born in Cleveland, Ohio on October 4, 1878, the youngest of ten children.

His began his career in newspapers, then press agentry and booking vaudeville acts. His first Broadway production was POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL, 1913. This was the start of a successful career in which he produced over seventy plays and directed scores of well-known theater personalities including Lionel, John and Ethel Barrymore. Among his most famous productions were HAMLET with John Barrymore, THE JEST, ANNA CHRISTIE and WHAT PRICE GLORY. As a director, he was known for his light touch and for valuing artistic over commercial merit. A writer as well, he published plays, books and articles. Arthur Hopkins died on March 22, 1950.

Arthur Hopkins, theatrical producer and director, was born in Cleveland, Ohio on October 4, 1878, the ninth son and tenth and last child of David Hopkins, a mill worker who had immigrated from Wales with his widowed father as a small boy and Mary Jeffreys, a preacher's daughter. Hopkins, like his brothers before him, worked in the mills to put himself through school. His career began in New York in newspapers, then press agentry and booking vaudeville acts. His first production was Poor Little Rich Girl, 1913. He produced over seventy plays in the course of his career, directing most of them. He valued artistic over commercial merit and while he had many successes, he had even more failures.

Early successes included On Trial, 1914, Good Gracious Annabelle, 1916, A Successful Calamity, 1917, Redemption with John Barrymore, 1918, and The Jest with John and Lionel Barrymore, 1919. His notable Shakespeare productions were Richard III, 1920, and Hamlet, 1922, both with John Barrymore and Macbeth, 1921, with Lionel Barrymore. He produced Ibsen revivals of Wild Duck, Hedda Gabler and A Doll's House, all with Alla Nazimova. He also directed Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie, 1921, and The Hairy Ape, 1922, What Price Glory by Maxwell Anderson, 1924, and Philip Barry's Paris Bound, 1927 and Holiday, 1928. He slowed down after 1930 but staged a successful Petrified Forest with Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart in 1935 and a successful Magnificent Yankee in 1946.

Hopkins had a light touch as a director wanting to preserve the "spontaneity of acting." He labored over the script with the playwright, but then his rehearsals were short. He studied theatrical production in Europe and developed the revolving stage in America. A biographical source credits him with discovering Katharine Hepburn and furthering the success of Robert Edmond Jones. He introduced unusual plays and new ideas to the Broadway theater of the 1910s.

Hopkins was also an author of numerous articles on the theater and other topics, and books including the novel The Glory Road, 1935, To A Lonely Boy, 1937, and Reference Point, 1948, both somewhat autobiogaphical, and How's Your Second Act . Arthur Hopkins was married to Eva O'Brien, an actress. He died on March 22, 1950 in New York City.