Webster, Ben(jamin) Nottingham

Webster, Ben(jamin) Nottingham (1797–1882), English actor, manager, and dramatist. He was first a dancer, appearing as Harlequin and Pantaloon in pantomime in the English provinces and at Drury Lane. He then became an actor, proving himself an excellent broad comedian, and was with Mme Vestris at the Olympic Theatre. In 1837 he became lessee of the Haymarket Theatre, where he remained for 16 years, engaging all the best actors of the day and putting on many notable productions, in many of which he himself appeared. In 1844 he took over the Adelphi Theatre as well, and was associated there with Mme Celeste and Dion Boucicault, collaborating with the latter in two plays. Webster also made in 1846 an adaptation of Dickens's The Cricket on the Hearth in which he appeared as John Peerybingle with great success; but his finest part was Triplet in Tom Taylor and Charles Reade's Masks and Faces (1852). He opened the New Adelphi in 1859 and continued in management until 1874, when he retired. As a character actor he was unsurpassed in his own day, but he had little liking for face, in spite of having written several successful farces himself, and he tempered his comedy with a somewhat grim humour. His grandson Ben Webster became a well-known actor in London and New York and was the father of Margaret Webster.