Macready, William Charles

Macready, William Charles (1793–1873), English actor, one of the finest tragedians of his day. The son of a provincial actor-manager, he was forced by his father's financial difficulties to cut short his schooldays at Rugby and find work in a touring company. In 1810 he was playing Romeo in Birmingham and in 1811 Hamlet in Newcastle. In 1816 he joined the company at Covent Garden and by 1819 was firmly established both there and at Drury Lane as the only rival of the great Edmund Kean. He was much admired in new plays but it was his Hamlet, Lear, Macbeth, and, later, Othello that were universally acclaimed. In 1826 he visited America, making his first appearance at the Park Theatre in New York, and in 1828 he played Macbeth in Paris, returning later the same year to play Hamlet and Othello. In 1838 he appeared at Covent Garden with Helen Faucit in Bulwer-Lytton's The Lady of Lyons. Their fine acting did much to ensure the success of the play, which was frequently revived. Another new play which owed its appearance to Macready's encouragement and initiative was Lord Byron's The Two Foscari (1838), and he also scored a personal triumph in Bulwer-Lytton's Richelieu (1839).

In the late 1830s Macready, who had an ungovernable temper, became the implacable rival of the American actor Edwin Forrest, their mutual animosity leading eventually to the Astor Place riot in New York in 1849, when several people were killed. Macready never acted in America again. He made his last appearance on the stage at Drury Lane in 1851 as Macbeth. Although he never wavered in his dislike of the profession into which he had been forced, he was scrupulous in performing his theatrical duties both as actor and as manager at both Patent Theatres, insisting on full rehearsals, particularly for supers and crowd scenes.