BOUCICAULT, DION (1822-189o), Irish-American actor and playwright, was born in Dublin on Dec. 26 1822, the son of a French refugee and an Irish mother, and died in New York on Sept. 18 1890. Before he was 20 he was fortunate enough to make an immediate success as a dramatist with London Assur ance, produced at Covent Garden on March 4 1841, with a cast that included Charles Matthews, William Farren, Mrs. Nesbitt and Madame Vestris. Other plays followed, among the most successful of the early ones being Old Heads and Young Hearts, Louis XI. and The Corsican Brothers. In June 1852 he made his first appearance as an actor in a melodrama of his own entitled The Vampire, at the Princess's theatre. From 1853 to 1869 he was in the United States. On his return to England he produced at the Adelphi a dramatic adaptation of Gerald Griffin's novel, The Collegians, entitled The Colleen Bawn. This play was per formed in almost every city of the United Kingdom and the United States, and made its author a handsome fortune, which he lost in the management of various London theatres. It was followed by The Octoroon (1861) . Boucicault's next marked suc cess was at the Princess's theatre in 1865 with Arrah-na-Pogue, in which he played the part of a Wicklow carman. This, and his admirable creation of Con in his play The Shaughraun (first pro duced at Drury Lane in 1875), won him the reputation of being the best stage Irishman of his time. In 1875 he returned to New York city and finally made his home there, but he paid occasional visits to London, where his last appearance was made in his play The Jilt in 1886. Boucicault was twice married, his first wife being Agnes Robertson, the adopted daughter of Charles Kean, and herself an actress of unusual ability.