Author: O'Keeffe, John
Biography:
O’KEEFFE, John (1747-1833: ODNB)
John O’Keeffe, a prolific and popular writer for the stage in both Dublin and London, was born in Dublin on 24 June 1747. His parents were Catholics, his father John O’Keeffe from Kings County and his mother, whose first name is not known, an O’Connor from Wexford. He displayed an aptitude for art and attended Mr. West’s Academy for Art in Dublin. Although an accomplished artist, he chose a career in theatre, influenced by having seen Garrick onstage in London in 1761. Back in Ireland he became an actor and began contributing poems and articles to newspapers. His performance career was thwarted, however, by increasing blindness, and he turned to writing for the stage with the assistance of a scribe. In 1774 he married Mary Heaphy (1757-1813), an actor and Protestant daughter of the proprietor of the Cork and Dublin theatres. They had three children but separated in 1781; O’Keeffe left for London with the two surviving children, to write full-time for Covent Garden and the Haymarket. The children were sent to school in France. After their return in 1788, his son John Tottenham O’Keeffe attended Westminster School and Oxford University, and his daughter Adelaide O’Keeffe (q.v.) became his lifelong amanuensis. His son took orders and officiated at Duke Street Chapel, Westminster, until 1803. At the request of his patron the Duke of Clarence, he left to take up a living in Jamaica, where he died at Port Royal three weeks after arrival, apparently early in 1805. O’Keeffe issued his (collected but not complete) Dramatic Works in two volumes in 1798, that same year he announced his retirement. He wrote approximately 80 pieces for the stage. In 1800 he was granted a benefit at Covent Garden. In 1815 he retired to Chichester, where in 1826 he received a royal pension from King George IV. In the same year he published Recollections in 2 vols. In 1828 he and Adelaide moved to Southampton, where he compiled thirty poems for the posthumous publication, O’Keeffe’s Legacy to his Daughter. He died in poverty at home in Bedford Cottage, Southampton, on 4 Feb.1833 and was interred at All Saints Church, Southampton. All remains from All Saints were re-interred at Hollybrook Cemetery in 1944 and 1961; there are no markers for identification. (ODNB [father and daughter] 18 Dec. 2022; DIB 18 Dec. 2022; RLF; The Irish Monthly 50: 590 [1922]; GM July 1805, 677; Lynda O’Keeffe, “The Blind Playwright,” irishlitsoc.org; Frederick M. Link, John O’Keeffe: A Bibliography [1983]) LOK