Ira Aldridge, called the African Roscius, an American actor, born at Bellair, near Baltimore, Md., about 1810, died in Poland, Aug. 7, 1867. He was a mulatto, whose real name is said to have been Hewlett, and in his youth was apprenticed to a ship carpenter. From asso-" ciation with the German, population, which is very large on the western shore of Maryland, he learned to speak the German language familiarly, and he also picked up a fair education. When Edmund Kean was in the United States, after the troubles which occurred during 1826 in consequence of the Cox difficulties, Aldridge became his personal attendant, and is said to have accompanied him to England, where a natural talent for the stage was cultivated. He returned to the United States alter a short absence, and some time subsequent to 1830 appeared in Baltimore, at a theatre then known as the Mud theatre, which subsequently lie-longed to Junius Brutus Booth, the tragedian. He appears not to have been successful. There is no account of his having appeared in any other city in America, whence after a short time he returned to England. He began his career in some of the minor theatres of London, and afterward performed in Ireland (with Kean) and all over Europe, being greatly admired, especially in Germany, in Shakespearian characters.

In 1861 he created a sensation at Versailles by his personification of Othello in English, the rest of the company speaking French. He was making a journey to Russia when he died. He married a white woman, but his domestic life was unhappv.