FLORENCE, W. J.

(1831-1891)

   William Jermyn Florence was born Bernard Conlin in Albany, New York. The versatile character actor excelled in comedy and was said to equal Joseph Jefferson III when they performed together in The Rivals, beginning in 1889: Jefferson as Bob Acres and Florence as Sir Lucius O'Trigger. "Billy" Florence also excelled in Irish character roles. Above all, he was remembered for the role of the Honorable Bardwell Slote, written for him by Benjamin E. Woolf in The Mighty Dollar (1875), which he played for the remainder of his career. Mrs. Florence, his wife, played Mrs. Gilflory opposite him, and they enjoyed a successful Broadway revival of the play in 1884, which the audience appreciated "with as much zest as if the rollicking humor of the play was new and fresh" (New York Times, 9 December 1884).