Johnston Forbes-Robertson
| Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
16 January 1853 London, England |
| Died | 6 November 1937 (aged 84) St. Margaret's Bay, Dover, Kent, England |
| Occupation | actor |
| Years active | 1874-1915 |
| Spouse(s) | Gertrude Elliott |
| Children |
Maxine Miles; Jean Forbes-Robertson; Chloe Forbes-Robertson; Diana Forbes-Robertson |
Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson (16 January 1853 – 6 November 1937) was an English actor and theatre manager. He was considered the finest Hamlet of the Victorian era and one of the finest actors of his time, despite his dislike of the job and his lifelong belief that he was temperamentally unsuited to acting.
Born in London, he was the eldest of the eleven children of John Forbes-Robertson, a theatre critic and journalist from Aberdeen, and his wife Frances. One of his sisters, Frances (1866–1956), and three of his brothers, Ian Forbes-Robertson (1859–1936), Norman Forbes-Robertson (1858–1932) and John Kelt (Eric Forbes-Robertson) (1865–1935), also became actors. He was the brother-in-law of famed actress Maxine Elliott, the uncle of Roy Harrod the economist, and he was also the great-uncle of actress Meriel Forbes (granddaughter of his brother Norman), who married actor Sir Ralph Richardson.
He was educated at Charterhouse. Originally intending to become an artist, he trained for three years at the Royal Academy. He began a theatrical career, out of a desire to be self-supporting, when the dramatist William Gorman Wills, who had seen him in private theatricals, offered him a role in his play Mary Queen of Scots.
His many performances led him into, among other things, travel to the U.S., and work with Sir Henry Irving. He was hailed as one of the most individual and refined of English actors. He was a personal friend of the Duke of Sutherland and his family and often stayed with them at Trentham Hall; he is known to have recommended to them various writers and musicians in dire need of assistance.
Forbes-Robertson first came to prominence playing second leads to Henry Irving before making his mark as the greatest interpreter of Hamlet of the nineteenth century, according to many critics. One of his early successes was in W. S. Gilbert's Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith. In 1882, he starred with Lottie Venne and Marion Terry in G. W. Godfrey's comedy The Parvenu at the Court Theatre. He was noted for his elocution, particularly by George Bernard Shaw who wrote the part of Caesar in Caesar and Cleopatra for him. Forbes-Robertson's other notable roles were Romeo, Othello, Leontes in The Winter's Tale, and the leading role in The Passing of the Third Floor Back; performed on Broadway 1908 (filmed in 1916, released 1918). He did not play Hamlet until he was 44 years old, but after his success in the part he continued playing it until 1916, including a surviving silent film (1913). Shaw considered him the greatest Hamlet he had ever seen.
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