(1870-1919) Henry Brodribb Irving was the first son of Sir Henry Irving; he used the stage name “H. B.” to distinguish himself from his illustrious father. In 1894, the same year he was called to the Bar, Inner Temple, he chose the theater as a profession and was continuously employed from then on as an actor. He acted in his father’s company, and served several times as an actor-manager in the London theaters. For a short period, he took overRead more
Posts tagged: #iago
John H. Barnes
John H. Barnes first played Shakespeare as Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice in 1879 at the Lyceum Theatre; this was eight years after his first professional stage appearance. He spent time in both England and the United States and played Shakespeare only intermittantly. He played in Macbeth in 1882 and the same play again as Banquo in 1911. His last performances in Shakespeare were with Johnston Forbes-Robertson during his 1913 farewell season; Barnes played both Polonius and Iago. These wereRead more
Clifton Alderson
(1864-1930) Clifton Alderson’s first stage appearance was in 1882 in Manchester. His debut was impressive enough to earn him an invitation the next year in 1883 to the Stratford Memorial Theatre where he play in Henry IV, Part 1 and Macbeth. After a long hiatus when he toured several times in Australia and played in popular plays in London, he returned to Shakespeare. At the Queen’s Theatre, Manchester, he played Iago in 1907 and Jaques in As You Like It inRead more
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