Steele MacKaye (June 6, 1842–February 25, 1894) was a playwright, actor, theater manager, and inventor who has been called the closest approximation to a Renaissance man produced by the United States in the 19th century. He was elected to The Lambs in 1879 as a charter member. He would serve as Boy (vice president from 1880-1881, and from 1886-1889.
In his youth he studied painting with Hunt, Inness, and Troyon. A pupil of Delsarte and Régnier, he was the first American to act Hamlet in London (1873). At Harvard, Cornell, and elsewhere he lectured on the philosophy of aesthetics. In New York City he founded the St. James, Madison Square, and Lyceum theaters.
MacKaye wrote 30 plays, including Hazel Kirke, performed many thousands of times, Paul Kauvar, and Money Mad, acting in them in 17 different roles. He organized the first school of acting in the U.S, which later became the American Academy of Dramatic Art; initiated overhead lighting (1874); invented the first moving “double stage” (1879); and invented folding theatre seats. In all, he patented over 100 theatrical inventions.
Among Steele’s childhood friends was his cousin Winslow Homer, later considered by many to be the greatest American painter ever. At the age of fourteen, Steele MacKaye ran away from Roe’s Military Academy, studied art under William Hunt at Newport (1858-59), at Paris in the Ecole des Beau Arts, and later under Ge’rome, Troyon, Couture and Rousseau. In 1862 he returned home and enlisted in New York’s Seventh Regiment in the Civil War. He served 18 months, chiefly in the 7th Regiment and in Col. Burney’s regiment, being a Major in the latter. He retired due to Rheumatic fever.