DeMILLE, Henry Churchill [1853-1893] -- American playwright

He was graduated at Columbia college in 1875 and was a teacher in Lockwood academy, Brooklyn, N.Y., 1875-78. He taught in the Columbia college grammar school, 1878-82 and on the opening of the Madison Square theatre in New York in 1882, he was employed as a reader of the plays offered there for production.

In 1883 he wrote Duty; or, Delmar's Daughters, which was brought out at the Madison Square theatre. In 1884 he produced at the same theatre, Sealed Instructions, a comedy, and made his début on the stage in Young Mrs. Winthrop. Then in collaboration with David Belasco he wrote May Blossom, Lord Chumley, The Wife, The Charity Ball and Men and Women. He later wrote The Main Line, and The Lost Paradise, which established his name as a playwright.

He married, in 1876, Matilda, daughter of Sylvester and Cecilia (Wolff) Samuel, of London, Eng. He died at Pompton, N.J., Feb. 5, 1893. BDNA