Alexander Cooke

Who was Alexander Cooke?

Alexander Cooke was an actor in the King's Men and the Lord Chamberlain's Men, the acting companies of William Shakespeare, John Heminges and Richard Burbage.

Edmond Malone introduced the hypothesis, still current though far from certain, that Cooke originated Shakespeare's principal female roles. Cooke could have been introduced to theatre by John Heminges, to whom he was apprenticed under the Grocer's Guild on 26 January 1597. Cooke's full name first appears in the plot for Ben Jonson's "Sejanus" in which he is listed as a "principle tragedian". This might indicate that he was a young actor in a prominent female role, perhaps Agrippina. He became a shareholder in the Lord Chamberlain's Men in 1604 when the number of shareholders was expanded to twelve. He was also cast in Volpone, in which he may have been Lady Would-be; Jonson's The Alchemist; Catiline and Beaumont and Fletcher's The Captain. Cooke was freed from the Grocer's Guild on 22 March 1609 and apprenticed Walter Haynes under the same guild a year later on 28 March. Cooke acted until 1612 when he may have become ill; he wrote his will on 3 January 1613 and died in February the same year.