Ira Aldridge was born in New York on 24 July 1807. He attended New York’s African Free School, where many future leaders of the American abolitionist movement were also educated. He was attracted to the theatre when the city’s free black community had just launched its own African Theatre, the African Grove.

In his teens, Aldridge performed with a New York based company related to the African Grove, but he was discouraged and harassed. The only way for an ambitious young actor to succeed was to emigrate to Britain so when he was 17 or 18, Aldridge worked for his passage to Liverpool as a ship’s steward.

His first known theatre performance in Britain was as Oroonoko in The Revolt of Surinam, or A Slave’s Revenge on 10 October 1825 at the Royal Coburg, London (now known as the Old Vic). The programme described him as a ‘Man of Colour’. Because of Aldridge’s race the press was hostile, which prevented him from establishing himself in London. After his first performance, The Times claimed that it was impossible for him to pronounce English properly ‘owing to the shape of his lips’.

Aldridge became the victim of a London press campaign which was racist and found it difficult to get acting roles because of these unfair reviews, but he didn’t give up, and outside London he began to win respect and admiration. He married an English woman and travelled and performed all around England playing to crowded theatres. However, Aldridge continued to be boycotted by London’s West End theatres so in 1852 he left Britain and went to Europe.

His performance as Othello (a black character until then mainly played by white actors) in Russia earned him huge praise and more money than any Russian actor. One reviewer wrote that ‘After Aldridge, it is impossible to see Othello performed by a white actor’. He returned from his European tours with so many honours that the West End could not ignore him any longer. In 1858, he finally performed at the Lyceum, London.

Aldridge applied for British citizenship in 1863. His final years were spent touring in Europe. He died on tour in the Polish town of Lodz in 1867, aged 59. The whole town turned out to mourn his death. His grave is tended by the Society of Polish Artists of Film and Theatre.