John C. Rice

John C. Rice (1858 – June 5, 1915, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was an American born Broadway stage actor and vaudevillian who is credited with performing the first onscreen kiss with May Irwin in 1896 for the Thomas Edison film company film The Kiss. The film was a 47-second recreation of a scene from the Broadway play The Widow Jones starring Irwin and Rice. Rice began his career on the stage in Philadelphia where he met fellow actor George W. Munroe. Rice and Munroe were both supporting actors in the play Over the Garden Wall; a work staged by the George S. Knight theatre company which premiered at the Chestnut Street Opera House (built 1870 as Fox's American Theatre) on September 1, 1884. Munroe was particularly successful in the comic female impersonation character of the Irish woman Bridget. The production then toured and ultimately was performed at Broadway's Union Square Theatre in January 1885, later transferring to the Fifth Avenue Theatre the following March. Rice and Munroe formed a long lasting performance partnership after the close of this play. The playwright Scott Marble wrote a new play centered around Munroe's Bridget character, My Aunt Bridget, which began its life on the stage in 1... ()