British Actor, Theatrical Manager ...
Sir Henry Irving
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Sir Henry Irving,
Henry Irving, the first actor to be knighted, rose from humble beginnings unconnected with the theatre.
He was born John Brodribb on 6th February in the small Somerset village of Keinton Mandeville. His father Samuel Brodribb was a travelling salesman in the area, who moved to Bristol in with his Methodist wife Mary (née Behenna) who came from a large Cornish family.
Henry irving and bram stoker Henry Irving's life and achievements have been set down in books by ten authors, published over 69 years. The first, 'Henry Irving's Impressions of America' was published in He had been at the first night of 'The Bells' and became a close friend. In , prior to his first tour of America, Irving asked him to prepare the way for his arrival in New York. This Hatton achieved with success, and he followed the whole tour.However their only child was sent to live with his maternal aunt, Mrs Sarah Penberthy in Halsetown near St Ives, where, with his cousins, he received his early education. Aged about seven, he visited his parents in Bristol by sea.
In his parents moved to the City of London where their son joined them, and attended the City Commercial School run by William Pinches.
In , aged thirteen, he became a clerk, first for Paterson & Longman, and one year later for Thacker, Spink & Co. However, whilst at school he had given recitations. He was irresistibly drawn to the theatre, and attended evening elocution classes.
He went to Sadler’s Wells repeatedly to see Samuel Phelps act, and had an interview with that major actor in Phelps discouraged the teenager, but he persisted, giving an amateur performance as Romeo in at the Soho Theatre.
Soon after, he received a legacy of £ from an uncle, equipped himself with costumes and props, and, taking the stage name of Henry Irving, embarked on his professional career. He made his debut at the New Royal Lyceum Theatre, Sunderland as the Duke of Orleans in Richelieu with the words ‘Here’s to our enterprise’.
Fifteen hard years followed, often in relative poverty, in Edinburgh and Glasgow followed by Manchester, with short term engagements in the provinces and Ireland.
He is said to have acted over six hundred and fifty parts, and played supporting roles to major actors of the time like Ira Aldridge, G.V. Brooke, Walter Montgomery, and Barry Sullivan. Eventually he began to play leading parts himself. Early in his career he met the comic actor J.L. Toole, who was a close and supportive friend to the end of Irving’s life.
Irving made attempts to succeed in London, mostly in comic parts, the best remembered perhaps Bob Gassitt and Digby Grant, with mixed success.
In he played minor parts at the Princess’s Theatre and gave dramatic readings in Crosby Hall. By he was at the St James’s; and later, at the Queen’s Theatre, he played opposite Ellen Terry for the first time in Katherine and Petruchio.
Irving met Florence O’Callaghan in and married her in , but the marriage was troubled from the first, as she had little understanding of an actor’s life.
They had two sons, Harry, and Laurence, who followed their father into the theatre.
In at the Vaudeville Theatre Irving finally attracted the attention of the influential manager Hezekiah Bateman, and was offered a contract at the Lyceum Theatre to play leading roles opposite the Bateman daughters. The company was not an instant success, but in Irving was allowed to stage a version of a French melodrama, The Bells, making an immediate hit as the villainous and troubled Mathias.
The audiences grew as he continued in parts such as Charles I, Eugene Aram, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and Richard III. At this time his troubled marriage finally ended after a rupture and reconciliation which had led to the birth of his second son. It is said the deciding factor was his wife’s demand after the triumphant first night of The Bells: ‘Are you going on making a fool of yourself like this all the rest of your life?’.
Irving now centred his social life on his clubs; principally, after , on the Garrick, and later in his own Beefsteak Room at the Lyceum.
His success now introduced Irving to admirers at many influential levels of society including the wealthy philanthropist Angela Burdett-Coutts, William Gladstone, the Lawsons who owned ‘The Daily Telegraph’, and even gave him an entrée into the Prince of Wales’ circle.
In Hezekiah Bateman died, and his widow, soon finding running the theatre too onerous, offered it to Irving. In December he opened his first season as manager with a revival of Hamlet. He was joined in his company by a number of people crucial to his success in the following years including Henry Loveday his Stage Manager, Bram Stoker his ‘Acting’ or Business Manager and Ellen Terry who was to be his leading lady for over two decades.
Irving’s aim was to improve the standard of productions, gain the approval of the clergy, and to make the theatre respectable and of equal standing with the other arts.
Major artists designed his productions, which were executed by the best scenic painters.
He commissioned music from leading composers of the Victorian era. His publicity was innovative and his productions were detailed and precise, with intensive rehearsals. Major successes were The Merchant of Venice, Othello, sharing the roles of Othello and Iago with Edwin Booth, Much Ado About Nothing, Faust, Henry VIII and Alfred Tennyson’s Becket.
More controversial were Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, Macbeth and King Lear.
Irving was sometimes criticized for his idiosyncratic pronunciation, and occasional throat problems affected his audibility. A few surviving recordings possibly suggest that his critics exaggerated these defects.
Henry irving facebook: Sir Henry Irving (6 February – 13 October ), christened John Henry Brodribb, sometimes known as J. H. Irving, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility (supervision of sets, lighting, direction, casting, as well as playing the leading roles) for season after.
He was tall and thin with a somewhat awkward gait. However his undoubted hold on his audiences is testified by many witnesses, who appreciated his intelligent and often original interpretation of major roles, both classic and modern. The stage tricks and ‘points’ of the previous generation of actors were not for Irving. His great stage partner, Ellen Terry charmed everyone, including Irving, and probably from about they embarked on an intimate relationship hidden from the general public.
This gradually lost its intensity and in Terry left the Lyceum Company, finding there were no longer suitable roles in Irving’s current productions.
After each London season Irving took his company round the British Isles and, from , to America. There were eight successful cross-Atlantic tours.
Henry irving biography He began his acting career in , appearing with various provincial Stock companies, playing during the following ten years over parts. For the next thirty years he was to be at the centre of Victorian Society. In he became the first actor to be knighted for his achievements, setting a standard of social respectability and professional integrity. Sadly his mother did not live to witness any of his success. Irving was also a man of letters with honorary doctorates from Cambridge, Dublin and Glasgow Universities.His preparation was, as usual, precise and he took his whole company and productions with him. They travelled all over the North American continent, including Canada, often in special trains carrying scenery and props as well as the full company. Their style, charm and skill conquered audiences and Irving’s tours became his greatest financial resource as the expense of his lavish productions became increasingly difficult to recoup in Great Britain.
By Irving was past his peak, but he had transformed the British theatre, and was rewarded with a knighthood – the first ever given to an actor.
Queen Victoria, when performing the ceremony, departed from usual practice and expressed her pleasure.
The company performed for the royal family at Sandringham in and and in a command performance at Windsor in
The years brought major problems. Irving injured his knee after the first performance of a new production of Richard III, leading to a brief closure of the Lyceum. Two new productions were unsuccessful and in February his off-site store caught fire, with the loss of valuable scenery and costumes for many plays in the repertoire.
In October Irving contracted pneumonia and pleurisy in Glasgow and nearly died.
Henry irving biography stoker
Such was the distinction of his bearing and appearance that it was said he would have become eminent in any walk of life. The honour and awe in which Irving was held, his dignity and integrity, his electrifying personality both on and off the stage, his generosity and the respect in which he was held by all classes, from Queen Victoria to the galleryites, bespeak a very exceptional character. After Gladstone, he was the most celebrated Englishman of his time. So how did a boy from the humblest of backgrounds, with no theatrical hinterland, rise to become The Elevator of the Stage, revered and feted by the literati and cognoscenti of the civilised world? That the society exists at all is a tribute to the enduring fascination of H.He was in decline from that time. Financial problems, due to the fire and falling box office revenue, led Irving, after poor advice, to hand the management of the Lyceum to a limited company which itself was to fail by
Irving now survived on touring, interspersed with seasons at Drury Lane. The last major production at the Lyceum, Robespierre in , was reasonably successful; but Dante at Drury Lane in , without Ellen Terry, was an aesthetic failure.
He had the willpower to continue to tour, but with failing health and finances he made his final performance on 13th October at Bradford, playing the lead in Becket. His last words on stage were ‘Into thy hand, O Lord, into thy hands!’ He was driven to his hotel after the performance and collapsed and died as he entered the building.
Irving was a great and charismatic actor, who succeeded in comic, tragic and melodramatic roles.
Sir henry irving biography Henry Irving, the first actor to be knighted, rose from humble beginnings unconnected with the theatre. However their only child was sent to live with his maternal aunt, Mrs Sarah Penberthy in Halsetown near St Ives, where, with his cousins, he received his early education. Aged about seven, he visited his parents in Bristol by sea. In his parents moved to the City of London where their son joined them, and attended the City Commercial School run by William Pinches. However, whilst at school he had given recitations.As he aged his productions became less fashionable, and his judgment less certain, but, above all other actors of his time, he raised the standards and the reputation of the theatre. A clubbable man with a wide acquaintance, Irving did much charitable work for theatrical and other institutions, and also was among those establishing associations among actors and managers to regulate the profession and give it respectability.
Irving argued for a National Theatre, with his own Lyceum Company its best advocate. It seems fitting that his ashes are buried in Westminster Abbey.
By Helen R Smith[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]