Benjamin Chapin

Benjamin Chapin (August 9, 1872 – June 2, 1918) was an American stage actor best known as an impersonator of Abraham Lincoln. From childhood Chapin had an obsession with the assassinated president, and had a lengthy career playing him on the Lyceum circuit and in vaudeville. In 1906 he wrote a play Lincoln which was staged at the Liberty Theatre on Broadway following directly on from a production of the play The Clansman by Thomas Dixon Jr.

In 1917, Chapin wrote and starred in The Lincoln Cycle series of films. Despite the success of the project he was increasingly in ill health, and died in June 1918 from tuberculosis.