John Bannister (actor)
| John Bannister | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
12 May 1760 Deptford |
| Died | 7 November 1836 (aged 76) |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | theatre manager |
John Bannister (12 May 1760 – 7 November 1836), (also called 'Jack' Bannister), English actor and theatre manager. The principal source for his life are his own Memoirs, and as a leading performer his career is well documented.
John Bannister was born at Deptford. He was the son of Charles Bannister, also an actor. He first studied to be a painter, but soon took to the stage. His first formal appearance was at the Haymarket Theatre in 1778 as Dick in Arthur Murphy's farce The Apprentice.
The same year at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane he played in James Miller's version of Voltaire's Mahomet the part of Zaphna, which he had studied under David Garrick. The Palmira of the cast was Mrs Robinson ("Perdita"). His reputation increased with his personification of Don Whiskerando in The Critic in 1779, and he was well known in the character of Joseph Surface in The School for Scandal.
Bannister was the best low comedian of his day. He was in the first presentation of the comic burletta Hero and Leander by Isaac Jackman, as Solano, opposite John Braham as Hymen, with which John Palmer's Royalty Theatre in Goodman's Fields embarked in 1787 upon comedy theatre having been prevented by statute from presenting serious drama. He appeared as Juan in Stephen Storace's first musical success at Drury Lane in the same year, in James Cobb's adaptation of Dittersdorf's The Doctor and the Apothecary. He led the cast in 1788 as the whimsical Sir David Dunder in George Colman the Younger's Ways and Means.
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