Fay Compton

(1894-1978) Fay Compton began her stage career in 1911, and although her roles in Shakespeare fall outside the period I am interested in, she played opposite some of the most distinguished actors and in such important companies like the Old Vic, that she is worth including among our best players. She played Ophelia with John Barrymore at he Haymarket in 1925 and repeated the role again in 1931. The Open Air Theatre was a venue in 1935 for her partsRead more

Maurice Colbourne

(1894-1965) Colbourne was born in 1864 in Cuddington, Cheshire and studied at the prestigious Repton School, along with Basil Rathbone, where he started the first Dramatic Society there. After Repton, he studied at Oxford and became the President of the Oxford Union Dramatic Society, which catapulted him into his distinguished career. Colbourne played in twenty-two Shakespeare plays at Stratford-upon-Avon between 1921 and 1925. He became Governor of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre. One of his earliest parts in Shakespeare was asRead more

H. Cooper Cliffe

(1862-1939) Cliffe first appeared on stage in 1879 in the chorus of a performance of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The H. M. S. Pinafore. His roles in Shakespeare began in 1886 when he joined the company of Wilson Barrett; he remained with Barrett’s company until 1894. In 1896, he went to Sir Henry Irving‘s Lyceum where he played both Iachimo and Caius Lucius in Cymbeline, Clarence in Richard III, and Lorenzo in The Merchant of Venice. During his time with Irving he alsoRead more

Harold Chapin

(1886-1915) A promising career in the theatre was cut short when Harold Chapin was killed in action at the Battle of Loos, France, in 1915. He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1914 and died attempting to save a comrade. Although he was an American born in Brooklyn, he left for England with his mother at an early age and worked for the most part in the British theatre. One of his first parts in Shakespeare was as YoungRead more

Hubert Carter

(1869-1934) Hubert Carter played many parts in Shakespeare’s plays and was active on the stage until 1931, three years before his death. His first stage appearance was in 1889 and his first London engagement was in 1895. In 1897, he played his first part in a London production of Shakespeare as Francisco in Hamlet. He gained critical attention when he played with Ellen Terry in 1903 as Borachio in Much Ado About Nothing; after that he went on to scoreRead more