Dion Boucicault

Dionisy Lardner "Dion" Busiko (not Bursikvot; December 26, 1820 - September 18, 1890) was an Irish actor and playwright, known for his melodramas. Towards the end of the 19th century, Busiko became known on both sides of the Atlantic as one of the most successful actors, playwrights, and managers than in the English-language theater. Although the New York Times greeted him in his obituary as "the most famous 19th-century English playwright," he and his second wife, Agnes Robertson Busiko, applied for and received American citizenship in 1873. Busco was born Dionysius Lardner Bursikvo in Dublin, where he lived on Gardiner Street. His mother was Anna Darley, sister of the poet and mathematician George Darley. Darley was an important Dublin family, influential in many areas and related to Guinness marriage. Anne was married to Samuel Smith Bursicvo, a native of the Huguenots, but the identity of the boy's father is unclear. He was probably Dionysius Lardner, a tenant in his mother's house at a time when she was recently separated from her husband, and later Lardner provided financial support to Dion Busiko until around 1840. In 1828, Lardner was elected professor of natural philosophy and astronomy at University College London, a position he held until his retirement in 1831. In 1828, Anna Bursico followed him to London, taking with them all the children except one. Consequently, since then Busiko attended various schools in London and its environs, in connection with which there is a lot of confusion, which Richard Fawkes wrote about in his biography. For about four years, from 1829, he seemed to attend a very small private school in Hampstead taught by Mr. Hessey and then attended University College from 1833 to 1835, where he began a friendship with Charles Kenny. He later recalled that he sat down on Euston Square with the Rev. Henry Stebbing, a historian. Fox then believes that Busiko attended Rowland Hill School in Bruce's Castle, as indicated in the dictionary of national biography. In 1837, he was enrolled at Wick House, a school in Zion Hill, Brentford, where Dr. Alexander Jamison studied, where he played in the school play Rolls in Pizarro by Sheridan and wrote his first play, The Old Guard, which was produced a few years later. After that, according to some reports, he attended a school in Dublin, and then returned to London as a student in civil engineering in Lardner.