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Johnston Forbes-Robertson
Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson (16 January 1853 – 6 November 1937) was an English actor and theatre manager and husband of the actress Gertrude Elliott. Considered by some the finest Hamlet of the Victorian era and one of the finest actors of his time, he disliked acting and believed throughout his career that he was temperamentally unsuited to it.
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 two of his brothers, Ian Forbes-Robertson (1859–1936), Norman Forbes-Robertson (1858–1932) also became actors, with another brother, Eric Forbes-Robertson (1865–1935), becoming a notable artist. Through his wife Gertrude Elliott, he was the brother-in-law of the actress Maxine Elliott, the uncle of Roy Harrod the economist, and was also the great-uncle of actress Meriel Forbes (granddaughter of his brother Norman), who married the actor 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 US, and work with Sir Henry Irving. He was hailed as one of the most individual and refined of English actors.
Forbes-Robertson first came to prominence playing second leads to Henry Irving before making his mark in the role of Hamlet. 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. George Bernard Shaw wrote the part of Caesar in Caesar and Cleopatra for him. Shaw stated:
I wrote Caesar and Cleopatra for Forbes-Robertson, because he is the classic actor of our day, and had a right to require such a service from me … Forbes-Robertson is the only actor I know who can find out the feeling of a speech from its cadence. His art meets the dramatist’s art directly, picking it up for completion and expression without explanations or imitations … Without him Caesar and Cleopatra would not have been written.
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 in the West End and on Broadway (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). In a theatre review of Forbes-Robertson's performance in Hamlet published in The Saturday Review (2 October 1897) Bernard Shaw wrote:
Nothing half so charming has been seen by this generation. It will bear seeing again and again. … His intellect is the organ of his passion. His eternal self-criticism is alive and thrilling as it can possible be. … Mr. Forbes-Robertson’s own performance has a continuous charm, interest and variety, which are the result not only of his well-known grace and accomplishment as an actor, but of a genuine delight – the rarest thing on our stage – in Shakespeare’s art, and a natural familiarity with the plane of his imagination.
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Johnston Forbes-Robertson
Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson (16 January 1853 – 6 November 1937) was an English actor and theatre manager and husband of the actress Gertrude Elliott. Considered by some the finest Hamlet of the Victorian era and one of the finest actors of his time, he disliked acting and believed throughout his career that he was temperamentally unsuited to it.
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 two of his brothers, Ian Forbes-Robertson (1859–1936), Norman Forbes-Robertson (1858–1932) also became actors, with another brother, Eric Forbes-Robertson (1865–1935), becoming a notable artist. Through his wife Gertrude Elliott, he was the brother-in-law of the actress Maxine Elliott, the uncle of Roy Harrod the economist, and was also the great-uncle of actress Meriel Forbes (granddaughter of his brother Norman), who married the actor 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 US, and work with Sir Henry Irving. He was hailed as one of the most individual and refined of English actors.
Forbes-Robertson first came to prominence playing second leads to Henry Irving before making his mark in the role of Hamlet. 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. George Bernard Shaw wrote the part of Caesar in Caesar and Cleopatra for him. Shaw stated:
I wrote Caesar and Cleopatra for Forbes-Robertson, because he is the classic actor of our day, and had a right to require such a service from me … Forbes-Robertson is the only actor I know who can find out the feeling of a speech from its cadence. His art meets the dramatist’s art directly, picking it up for completion and expression without explanations or imitations … Without him Caesar and Cleopatra would not have been written.
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 in the West End and on Broadway (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). In a theatre review of Forbes-Robertson's performance in Hamlet published in The Saturday Review (2 October 1897) Bernard Shaw wrote:
Nothing half so charming has been seen by this generation. It will bear seeing again and again. … His intellect is the organ of his passion. His eternal self-criticism is alive and thrilling as it can possible be. … Mr. Forbes-Robertson’s own performance has a continuous charm, interest and variety, which are the result not only of his well-known grace and accomplishment as an actor, but of a genuine delight – the rarest thing on our stage – in Shakespeare’s art, and a natural familiarity with the plane of his imagination.