Forbes-Robertson, Sir Johnston (1853–1937), English actor-manager. He studied art but gave it up for the stage, learning his perfect elocution from Samuel
Phelps. He made his first outstanding success at the
Haymarket Theatre in W. S.
Gilbert's Dan'l Druce,
Blacksmith (1876). Two years later he joined the
Bancrofts, and was then engaged by Wilson
Barrett to play opposite
Modjeska. In 1882 he went to the Lyceum under Irving, later touring with Mary
Anderson with whom he made his first appearance in New York as Orlando to her Rosalind in
As You Like It (1885). He returned to the Lyceum to give outstanding performances as the Duke of Buckingham in Irving's production of
Henry VIII (1892), Romeo to the Juliet of Mrs Patrick
Campbell (1895), and, for the first time, Hamlet (1897), his voice, fine ascetic features, and graceful figure being ideally suited to the part. An outstanding later role, in the style of the time, was the Stranger in Jerome K.
Jerome's The Passing of the Third-Floor Back (1908), with which he inaugurated his final season at the
St James's. He made his last appearance at
Drury Lane as Hamlet in 1913. He married in 1900 Gertrude Elliott (see
ELLIOTT, MAXINE) who acted with him until 1913. Their daughter Jean
Forbes-Robertson was also on the stage, as were Forbes-Robertson's three brothers.
