Richard Perkins (17th-century actor)

Richard Perkins (died 1650) was a prominent early seventeenth-century actor, most famous for his performance in the role of Barabas in Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta. At the peak of his career in the 1630s, many contemporaries judged Perkins to be the premier tragedian of his generation.

Nothing is known of Perkins's early life; his birth has been estimated at about 1585, reading backward from the known facts of his biography. His stage career had begun by 1602, when he was a member of Worcester's Men; he remained with that company throughout its next incarnation as Queen Anne's Men, 1603–19. With the death of Anne of Denmark in 1619, the troupe lost its name and patron, but continued in its theatre, and was known as the Red Bull company or the Revels company. After a relatively brief stint with the King's Men, 1623–25, Perkins became a founding member of the new Queen Henrietta's Men in 1625. Perkins remained with that company until the theatres were closed at the start of the English Civil War in 1642, and became their leading man and star.

Perkins achieved his greatest fame as Barabas in the company's 1633 revival of The Jew of Malta. He was also involved in most of the troupe's productions during its 1625–42 lifetime, including Heywood's The Fair Maid of the West (he played Mr. Goodlack), Shirley's The Wedding (playing Sir John Belfare) and The Lady of Pleasure (Sir Thomas Bornwell), Davenport's King John and Matilda (Fitzwater), Nabbes's Hannibal and Scipio (Hanno), and Ford's Love's Sacrifice (Duke Caraffa).

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