Edward Askew Sothern the play that Abraham Lincoln was watching when he was assassinated. Sothern's role was Lord Dundreary, a caricature of a brainless English nobleman. At first, he was reluctant to accept the role; it was so small and unimportant that he felt it beneath him and feared it might damage his reputation. He mentioned his qualms to his friend, Joseph Jefferson, who had been cast in the leading role of Asa Trenchard in the play. Jefferson supposedly responded with the famous line: "There are no small parts, only small actors." On 15 October 1858, "Our American Cousin" premiered in New York.
Abraham Lincoln (1930 film) performance of Walter Huston in the lead role." Film historian Melvyn Stokes found that "Abraham Lincoln"'s episodic structure "came at the cost of dramatic tension" and suggested that the film's disappointing box office performance was due to its having "nothing of major importance and relevance to say about its subject to moviegoers of Depression-era America." "Abraham Lincoln" was the first sound film about the Civil War which veterans of that war could view. Abraham Lincoln (1930 film) Abraham Lincoln, also released under the title D. W. Griffith's "Abraham Lincoln", is a 1930 Pre-Code American biographical film about Abraham Lincoln directed