Macready, William Charles ___ 1793-1873 ___ British ___ actor

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Macready was born into a theatrical family, and educated at Rugby. Although he intended to go to Oxford, he joined his father's ailing company, appearing as Romeo when only 17. Soon, though, he fell out with his father, went to Bath for two years, and then, in 1816, made his debut on the London stage as Orestes in Racine's 'The Distressed Mother'. His stature as an actor developed with leading roles such as Rob Roy, Richard III and William Tell. Subsequently, in the late 1830s, he became manager of Covent Garden, and, in the 1840s, of Drury Lane. He was an important person in the development of the theatre, insisting on rehearsals, accurate costumes and appropriate sets. He also sought to employ original texts in his revivals of Shakespeare's plays. Macready made several trips to the US. During the final one of these, in 1848-1849, a longstanding dispute with the US actor Edwin Forrest erupted and caused a riot - in which 22 people were killed - at the Astor Place Theatre.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Acted Macbeth very unequally

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1833-1851 ___ literary theatre society people self

WEB TEXT LINKS
a few quotes
about and some quotes
etext

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
 

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Macready's Reminiscences and Selections from his Diaries and Letters
The Diaries of William Charles Macready
The Journal of William Charles Macready
 

May 2005, July 2008, April 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.