Robert Schell Taber (1865 – March 8, 1904) was an American Broadway and silent film actor of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Biography

Born in 1865 in Staten Island in New York, where his father, Charles Corey Taber (1821–1892) was a well-known cotton merchant, his brothers were mathematician Dr. Henry S. Taber (1860–1936), a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and professor of Mathematics at Clark University from 1888 to 1921, and Edward Martin Taber (1863–1896), a landscape artist. Robert Taber attended Princeton University.

His first professional engagement was in 1886 as Silvius in As You Like It with the theatrical company of Helena Modjeska. Taber later appeared with Richard Mansfield. In 1888 he joined the company of the actress Julia Marlowe and became the company's leading man.

During 1890 and 1891 he appeared in the companies of Augustin Daly and Richard Mansfield, returning to Julia Marlowe's company in late 1891, appearing with her in Twelfth Night in 1892. In 1896 he appeared as Captain Absolute in a production of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals with his wife Julia Marlowe, Joseph Jefferson and Louisa Lane Drew at Macauley's Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky.

According to many who knew her, Marlowe sacrificed her own self-interests many times in order to promote Taber's career, such as when he played Hotspur to her Prince Hal in Henry IV, Part 1. They married in May 1894 in Philadelphia, separated in 1899 and divorced in 1900 owing to "incompatability of temper and professional jealousy." There were no children from the marriage.

At the time of his divorce he was appearing in London, where, among other roles, he played Macduff in Macbeth at the Lyceum Theatre in 1898, opposite Johnston Forbes-Robertson and Mrs. Patrick Campbell. He appeared as Orsino in Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree's production of Twelfth Night at Her Majesty's Theatre in London in 1901.

His affair in 1903 with the British actress Lena Ashwell led to her divorce from her husband, Arthur Playfair.

Robert Taber died in 1904 aged 39 from pleurisy at a refuge in the Adirondack Mountains provided for him by Julia Marlowe as he had been made destitute by his illness.



^ Obituary of Charles Corey Taber The New York Times April 3, 1892

^ Programme in the Hansen Performing Arts Collection at University of North Carolina at Greensboro

^ Edward T. James and Janet Wilson James Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary Published by Radcliffe College (1971) pg 498 Google Books'

^ Shakespeare & the Players: Macbeth Emory University website

^ 'Classical Plays: Souvenirs and Portraits' - Rob Wilton Theatricalia

^ 'Arthur Playfair Seeks Divorce; Actor Involves Robert Taber, Former Husband of Julia Marlowe' The New York Times September 13, 1903