- Born
- Died
- Birth nameWilliam Lawrence Murphy
- Joe Murphy was born in 1831 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. Joe was a writer, known for The Kerry Gow (1912). Joe died on December 31, 1915 in New York City, New York, USA.
- Best remembered for the Irish play "Kerry Gow Dhuv (The Blacksmith of Kerry)", later shortened to "Kerry Gow".
- As a young man he sailed to California to escape an apprenticeship contract. After trying his hand at gold mining he joined a minstrel show for five dollars a week. By the time he had retired in 1902, he was probably the richest actor in America with an estate worth some $3,000,000.
- US President Abraham Lincoln, who had never seen a minstrel show, once asked Murphy and his troupe to do a special performance at the Glover Theatre in Washington D. C. for him and his cabinet.
- When he made his stage debut in San Francisco, and was erroneously billed as Joe Murphy, the name stuck.
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