Samuel Foote, an English dramatist and actor, born in Truro, Cornwall, in 1720, died in Dover, Oct, 21, 1777. He was entered at Worcester college, Oxford, but his powers of mimicry involved him in indiscretions which led to the severance of his connection with the university when he was 20 years old. He soon afterward became a student at law in the Temple, and, plunging into a career of pleasure, in less than four years dissipated at the gaming table and by reckless extravagance two fortunes which he had successively inherited from his uncle and his father. He thereupon became an actor, and in 1744 made his debut at the Haymarket theatre in the character of Othello. He attracted little attention in tragedy or in comedy, and it was not until he brought the political and social notabilities of the day upon the stage by his wonderful gift of mimicry that he discovered his true road to success. In the spring of 1747 he opened, the Haymarket theatre with a piece called The Diversions of the Morning," written by himself, and in which he was the principal actor. The piece was successful almost beyond precedent.

The licensing act having been applied against him by those whose foibles he had thus publicly portrayed, he made his piece a morning entertainment, and under the title of "Mr. Foote taking Tea with his Friends,*' it was repeated for more than 50 successive mornings. A similar piece, entitled The Auction of Pictures," proved equally successful, and the author was complimented with the title of the English Aristophanes. He kept the Haymarket theatre open without a license for ten years (during which he found time to dissipate a third fortune), furnishing a constant supply of new plays to replace the old ones, and became the admiration of the town, and also its terror, as no person whose character possessed any vulnerable points was safe from his mimicry". In 17G7 a fall from his horse occasioned the amputation of one of his legs; and the duke of York, who witnessed the accident, procured him a regular patent to open a theatre. He still wrote and acted, but less frequently than before; and in 1777, with a constitution undermined by ill health and mental suffering, he undertook a journey to France, and died on the way at Dover. He wrote about 25 plays, of which 20 have been published, and some others have been attributed to him.

Those which have kept the stage longest are "The Minor." in which the Methodists are satirized, "The Englishman returned from Paris,"The Bankrupt," which attacks the newspapers, "The Orators,"The Lame Lover,"The Liar," and "The Mayor of Garratt." His dramatic works have never been published in a complete edition. William Cooke published his memoirs, and some of his writings (3 vols. 8vo, London, 1805).