The phrase “according to tradition” confesses and avoids falsehood to justify a truth. It is apt for 23 November 534 BC, the day Thespis became the first “actor”. It is also apt that most online sources justify the assertion along the lines “according to Aristotle in his Poetics“. Aristotle says no such thing in that work, although he did say something somewhere else.
Spranger Barry was an 18th century Irish actor who worked with and was a rival of David Garrick. Both are buried in Westminster Abbey but only Garrick’s grave is marked. Each were giants in the thespian world although neither could have been a thespian. The adjective “thespian” to describe dramatic or tragic acting had been around since the seventeenth century but the first sighting of the noun meaning “actor” was only 1827.
So far, thespian doesn’t seem to have made it to film or to computer. Rather, it has retained a theatrical quality. That said, it can adapt. It is an anagram of Athens IP after all.
In the meantime, falsehood had popped up in John Milton’s Areopagitica, published on 23 November 1644. This famous tract on free speech was birthed at the height of England’s Civil War and made it into the US Supreme Court’s landmark free speech decision New York Times Co v. Sullivan in support of the proposition “Even a false statement may be deemed to make a valuable contribution to public debate”.
Four 20th century actors whose characters became cultural icons were affected by 23 November. Boris Karloff and Harpo Marx were born on the day in 1887 and 1888 respectively. Larry Hagman and Andrew Sachs died on the day in 2012 and 2016 respectively.
As important for geeks as the choice of actor for the role of 007 is for the rest of us, the choice of a new Doctor Who is followed by millions. English actor William Hartnell was the first incarnation when the first episode ran on 23 November 1963.
