1756-1812

Acclaimed as one of the greatest actors of his day, Cooke played Richard III to an audience of 2,000 in New York. After his death, legends abounded that his skull was stolen from his coffin and secretly used in theater productions of Hamlet. In 1821, his protégé, British actor Edmund Keane, erected Cooke’s tomb in the Chapel’s churchyard.

Marker can be reached from Vesey Street, on the right when traveling east.

Courtesy hmdb.org

Credits and Sources: