John C. Rice

John C. Rice (; April 7, 1857 – June 5, 1915) 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.

Life and career The son of John Marcus Hilberg and Frances Hilberg , John C. Hilberg was born on April 7, 1857 in Beaverkill, New York; a small community in Sullivan County that is northwest of the town of Rockland, New York. His parents were farmers and first generation Americans who had immigrated to the United States from Sweden. 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. 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 actor Andrew Mack became part of the Munroe and Rice team, and they continued to perform plays led by Munroe as Bridget through 1898; marking a 12-year-long span for the Munroe and Rice vaudeville team. After his partnership with Munroe ended, Rice and his wife starred opposite one another in the popular sketch comedy "Our Honeymoon" at Keith's Theatre in Boston in 1898. The pair continued to perform in vaudeville theatres together as the comedy duo Rice and Cohen for more than fifteen years. Their final performances together occurred just two months before Rice's death at Broadway's Colonial Theatre in April 1915.

John C. Rice died of Bright's disease on June 5, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Filmography Year Title Role Notes 1896 The Kiss Billie BikesShort 1900 The Kleptomaniacs 1936 Fashions in Love Short, archive footage, posthumously release