Today is Actors Day, where we pay tribute to stage and screen performers who have really left an impression on the audience.
Robert “Romeo” Coates definitely left his mark, though a lot of audiences probably wished that he hadn’t.
Coates was born in Antigua in the West Indies, where his dad made a fortune running sugar plantations.
The son returned to England for schooling, and along the way he got interested in theater.
He wasn’t interested so much in the craft of acting but in getting all the attention onstage.
And when Coates inherited his wealthy dad’s entire fortune, he made sure he got plenty of attention.
For one thing, he made his way around town wearing gaudy furs with buttons made of diamonds, riding in a carriage dressed to look like a crowing rooster.
Then, this walking, talking human spectacle started performing in plays (acting is probably overstating it).
Not only would he overact his parts, he would sometimes act out the same scenes multiple times just because he liked them.
Imagine a Romeo who might try to pry open Juliet’s tomb with a crowbar, meet his untimely demise, and then get up and do it all again (!)
Plus, on at least one occasion his pants split in the middle of a show.
For a time, Coates brought in big audiences.
People wanted to see just how bad the worst actor of the time really was.
Theater owners admitted that Coates wasn’t a great thespian, but his performances were for charity and that should count for something.
But in time, even the most patient playhouses got tired of the flamboyant leading man trying to “improve” on Shakespeare, not to mention the hecklers who tossed endless numbers of fruits and vegetables at his onstage debacles.
Still, he left his mark: you can find books from the 1800s that make references to Robert Coates.
Though he wasn’t hailed as a bright light of the English stage, but mocked as someone who, time after time, just went way too far.
Today in 2022, the passing of Queen Elizabeth II of England, which meant someone had to notify the royal bees.
This is a very old tradition that started out of concern that the bees might stop producing honey if they weren’t kept in the loop about palace comings and goings.
So royal beekeeper John Chapple placed black ribbons on the beehives before informing the hives’ residents that the queen was no more and that they should be good to her successor, King Charles.
The Amateur of Fashion: Robert “Romeo” Coates (Folger Shakespeare Library)
The Queen’s Bees Have Been Informed of Her Passing (Vanity Fair
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Image via Wikicommons