Henry Irving

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Irving, Henry [né John Henry Brodribb] (1838–1905), actor and manager. The renowned Englishman, who was long the subject of both adulation and savage criticism, was credited with making acting a respectable profession in his homeland and with ridding English playgoers of Puritan obsessions. He was the first actor to be knighted. Irving made six visits to America between 1883 and 1903, most in the company of Ellen Terry. For his American debut he selected one of his most celebrated roles, the guilt‐ridden Mathias in The Bells. Among his other American offerings were his Shylock, Hamlet, Macbeth, Doricort in The Belle's Stratagem, Dubosc in The Lyons Mail, Benedick, and Richelieu. Neither good‐looking nor well built and with a peculiar style of delivery, he divided American critics much as he did English reviewers. Despite critical complaints, his tours were among the most financially profitable of his era, and he was often able to charge twice the going rate for tickets. Biography: Henry Irving, the Actor and His World, Laurence Irving, 1951.