William Macready
Birthday	Sunday, March 03, 1793
Birthplace	London, England, UK
Died	Sunday, April 27, 1873
Occupation	Actor

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Macready, William Charles

Born Mar. 3, 1793, in London; died Apr. 27, 1873, in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. English actor and director.

Macready came from a family of actors. He made his debut in 1810 in Birmingham and later played in provincial theaters; he appeared in London for the first time in 1816, at Covent Garden. In 1823 he began work with the Drury Lane Theater. He toured in Paris (1822; 1828) and New York (1826; 1848). From 1837-39, Macready joined the management of Covent Garden, staging such productions as Shakespeare’s Henry V, Byron’s The Two Foscari, Browning’s Strafford, and Bulwer-Lytton’s The Lady of Lyons and Richelieu, and playing the leading roles in them. From 1841 to 43 he was one of the managers of the Drury Lane Theater. He acted for the last time in 1851, playing the title role in Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Macready strove for historical authenticity in his productions; he advocated the actor’s detailed study of his role, and he himself trained actors to act as an ensemble. He was one of the first to bring back the original Shakespearean texts to the stage. Among Macready’s roles were the title roles in Shakespeare’s King Lear and Hamlet.

WORKS

Reminiscences and Selections From His Diaries and Letters, vols. 1-2. London, 1875.

REFERENCES

Archer, W. W. C. Macready. London, 1890.
Trewin, J.C. Mr. Macready. London, 1955.
Joseph, B. The Tragic Actor. London, 1959. Chapter 7.

References in periodicals archive

He was in the crowds during the Astor riots when fans of British actor William Charles Macready fought with those of American actor Edwin Forrest over whose performance of Macbeth was better, with the brawl resulting in an estimated two dozen deaths.

Acclaim and Alcoholism: 2 recent volumes chronicle the dramatic life of the 19th-century actor

Writing about Siddons in his Reminiscences, the actor William Charles Macready did not quote William Shakespeare or Thomas Otway, but rather Joanna Baillie's play De Monfort, which premiered at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane in 1800.

SUCCEEDING THE SIDDONS: ELIZA O'NEILL AND THE TRIUMPH OF THE ROMANTIC STYLE

The crisis, which extended over several days, was ostensibly provoked by a dispute between two Shakespearean actors, the American Edwin Forrest and the Englishman William Charles Macready, who were appearing in different theaters in New York City.

"The pit has often laid down the law for the boxes": Terence Hawkes, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Shakespearean Class Struggle

Six years later, he was inspired to follow a life on the stage by watching William Charles Macready as Macbeth.

When Birmingham welcomed Nelson

The new owner will follow a distinguished line of residents, the most notable William Charles Macready who took over the lease from 1850 to 1860.

Historic home which hosted Dickens goes on sale

Church, Richelieu and Reason of State (1972); H.M.Solomon, Public Welfare, Science and Propaganda in Seventeenth-Century France (1972); R.J.Knecht, Richelieu (1981); H.Gaston Hall, Richelieu's Desmarets and the century of Louis XIV (1990); A.S.Dower, The Eminent Tragedian William Charles Macready (1966); L.

Cardnal Richelieu: hero or villain? Robert Knecht looks at the `eminence rouge' and considers how his image, carefully crafted during his lifetime, has become that of a demonic schemer

The two most prominent characters in this instance were William Charles Macready and Charles Kean.

Church and Stage in Victorian England

In 1849, Manhattan's working classes became so fed up with the British tilt of the city's respectable theater that they took their anger out on famed Shakespearean William Charles Macready's performance of Macbeth, ultimately leaving dozens dead and a hundred wounded.

Life the Movie

The most notable rivalry was between the American Edwin Forrest and William Charles Macready of Great Britain.

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