(1854-1928) Mantell was born in Scotland and first appeared on stage in Belfast, Northern Ireland; for a time he used the stage name Robert Hudson, but he reassumed his name Mantell after he joined the company of Helena Modjeska in 1878 and came to the United States. His first professional appearance was at the Theatre Royal in Rockdale in 1876. His first role with Dame Modjeska was as Tybalt in Hamlet at the Leyland Opera House in Albany, New York. HeRead more
Posts filed in: Names: H-P
Sir Henry Irving
(1838-1905) Sir Henry Irving was the stage name of John Henry Brodribb, who was born in 1838 and raised in a working-class family. He was one of the most famous British actor-managers and dominated the late Victorian Stage (along with Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree). He was born in Somerset but lived in London from the age of ten. It was seeing Samuel Phelps (also a mentor to Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson) playing Hamlet that inspired Irving to take to the stage,Read more
Matheson Lang
(1879-1948) Matheson Alexander Lang was eighteen when he first appeared on the stage in 1897. Before forming his own company, he acted with the companies of Sir Frank Benson, Lillie Langtry, and Dame Ellen Terry. In his early career he toured the United States and the West Indies; after his success in 1908 in Romeo & Juliet and Hamlet, he toured South Africa, Australia, and Asia, where his company played Shakespeare with great success. Notably, he produced and starred in Romeo & JulietRead more
Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson
(1853-1937) Forever critical of his own acting prowess, Forbes-Robertson’s career, spanning almost forty years from 1874 to 1913, is impossible to summarize in so brief a space. Born in London, he was regarded as one of the preeminent Shakespearean players in the four decades of his active life on the stage. His interpretation of Hamlet is regarded as one of the best of the twentieth century. One of his younger eleven siblings was Norman Forbes-Robertson, also a noted Shakespearean, as wasRead more
Stanley Lathbury
(1873-?) Stanley Lathbury first appeared on stage in 1895 when he joined the company of Sarah Thorne at Margate; in the next two years he appeared in almost one hundred parts while still at Margate. His career in Shakespeare began in earnest in 1909 when he was engaged by Gerald Lawrence and Fay Davis who opened their Shakespeare season on April 12 at the Royal Court Theatre, London. After that season – and many other engagements, often in the cityRead more
Margaret Halstan
(1879-1967) Playing first in amateur productions, Margaret Halstan became a professional actress in 1895 at the Haymarket Theatre in a walk-on part in Trilby. Her first part in Shakespeare was a small one; she was the Player Queen Hamlet with Herbert Beerbohm Tree‘s production of the play. In 1897, she played Octavia in Antony & Cleopatra and then that same year appeared as Bianca in an adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew entitled Katherine and Petruchio. In 1900, she joinedRead more