Alleyn, Edward (1566–1626), actor, theatre entrepreneur, and founder of Dulwich College, was born on 1 September 1566 in the London parish of St Botolph without Bishopsgate, 'near Devonshire House, where now is the sign of the Pye'. He was baptized the following day in the parish church, the son of ...
Article
Alleyn, Edward (1566–1626), actor, theatre entrepreneur, and founder of Dulwich College
S. P. Cerasano
Article
Arlott, (Leslie Thomas) John (1914–1991), writer and broadcaster
David Rayvern Allen
Arlott, (Leslie Thomas) John (1914–1991), writer and broadcaster, was born at Cemetery Lodge, Chapel Street, Basingstoke, Hampshire, on 25 February 1914, the only son of William John Arlott (1883–1959), cemetery registrar, and his wife, Ellen (Nellie) Jenvey-Clarke (c.1884–1975). He was educated at ...
Article
Ashton, Sir Frederick William Mallandaine (1904–1988), choreographer and director
Kathrine Sorley Walker
Ashton, Sir Frederick William Mallandaine (1904–1988), choreographer and director, was born on 17 September 1904 in Guayaquil, Ecuador, the fourth of the five children of George Ashton (1864–1924) and his second wife, Georgiana (1869–1939), daughter of Henry Fulcher and his wife, Edith. His father was manager of the ...
Article
Askey, Arthur Bowden (1900–1982), actor and entertainer
Richard Murdoch
revised
Askey, Arthur Bowden (1900–1982), actor and entertainer, was born on 6 June 1900 at 29 Moses Street, Liverpool, the elder child and only son of Samuel Askey (d. 1958), secretary of the firm Sugar Products of Liverpool, and his wife, Betsy Bowden (...
Article
Astley, Philip (1742–1814), equestrian performer and circus proprietor
Marius Kwint
Astley, Philip (1742–1814), equestrian performer and circus proprietor, was born on 8 January 1742 at Newcastle under Lyme, one of three children of Edward Astley (fl. 1725–1772), cabinet-maker and veneer cutter. Apprenticed to the family trade at nine, the forthright Astley had a traumatic relationship with his father and when he was seventeen left to join the ...
Article
Baddeley [née Snow], Sophia (bap. 1744, d. 1786), actress and singer
Olive Baldwin and Thelma Wilson
Baddeley [née Snow], Sophia (bap. 1744, d. 1786), actress and singer, was baptized on 12 October 1744 at St Mary-at-Lambeth, the daughter of Valentine Snow (d. 1770) and his wife, Mary, and not in the parish of St Margaret, Westminster, in 1745, as stated in ...
Article
Bancroft [née Wilton], Marie Effie, Lady Bancroft (1839–1921), actress and theatre manager
George Taylor
Bancroft [née Wilton], Marie Effie, Lady Bancroft (1839–1921), actress and theatre manager, was born on 12 January 1839, probably in Doncaster, the eldest of the six daughters of Robert Pleydell Wilton (1800–1873), a provincial actor, and his wife, Georgina Jane (1818–1866), the daughter of ...
Article
Bannister [née Harper], Elizabeth (1757–1849), actress and singer
Susan Wollenberg
Bannister [née Harper], Elizabeth (1757–1849), actress and singer, was, according to the encomium in the Thespian Magazine (1793), the daughter of a Mrs Harpur, 'now a mantua-maker [dressmaker] at Bath', who, having made a marriage disapproved of by her family, educated her daughter perforce '...
Article
Baylis, Lilian Mary (1874–1937), theatre manager
Elaine Aston
Baylis, Lilian Mary (1874–1937), theatre manager, was born at 19 Nottingham Street, Marylebone, London, on 9 May 1874, the eldest daughter of Edward William Baylis, an employee of Gillows furniture store in Oxford Street and a baritone singer (known as Newton Baylis), and his wife, ...
Article
Beaton, Sir Cecil Walter Hardy (1904–1980), photographer and designer for screen and theatre
Hugo Vickers
Beaton, Sir Cecil Walter Hardy (1904–1980), photographer and designer for screen and theatre, was born at 21 Langland Gardens, Hampstead, London, on 14 January 1904, the eldest of the two sons and two daughters of Ernest Walter Hardy Beaton (1867–1936), timber merchant, and his wife, ...
Article
Betjeman, Sir John (1906–1984), poet, writer, and broadcaster courtier
Kingsley Amis
revised by M. Clare Loughlin-Chow
revised
Betjeman, Sir John (1906–1984), poet, writer, and broadcaster, was born on 28 August 1906 at 52 Parliament Hill Mansions, north London, the only child of Ernest Edward Betjemann (1872–1934), a furniture manufacturer, and his wife, Mabel Bessie Dawson (1879–1952). The family name, of Dutch or German origin, can be traced back to an immigration in the late eighteenth century. The poet adopted his style of it about the age of twenty-one....
Article
Betterton, Thomas (bap. 1635, d. 1710), actor and theatre manager
Judith Milhous
Betterton, Thomas (bap. 1635, d. 1710), actor and theatre manager, was baptized on 11 or 12 August 1635 at St Margaret, Westminster, London. His father, Matthew (d. 1663), was an under-cook to Charles I, according to Betterton's first biographer, Gildon. His mother was ...
Article
Booth [née Santlow], Hester (c. 1690–1773), actress and dancer
Moira Goff
Booth [née Santlow], Hester (c. 1690–1773), actress and dancer, was born about 1690. Very little is known about her parents and family background, although her mother, Jane (or Joanna), died in April 1724. She was apprenticed to the dancing-master René Cherrier, probably in 1704, and made her début as a dancer at ...
Article
Booth, Sarah [Sally] (1789x94–1867), actress
Joseph Knight
revised by J. Gilliland
Booth, Sarah [Sally] (1789x94–1867), actress, was born in Birmingham of unknown parentage. Her father died when she was an infant, leaving a large family of which she was the youngest of three daughters. She claimed descent from the seventeenth-century actor Barton Booth but denied any connection with her contemporary, ...
Article
Butlin, Sir William Heygate Edmund Colborne [Billy] (1899–1980), fairground proprietor and founder of holiday camps
Douglas A. Reid
Butlin, Sir William Heygate Edmund Colborne [Billy] (1899–1980), fairground proprietor and founder of holiday camps, was born in Cape Town, Cape Colony, where his parents had emigrated, on 29 September 1899, the elder child of William Butlin and Bertha Hill (d. 1933)...
Article
Butterworth, George Sainton Kaye (1885–1916), composer and folk dancer
Alain Frogley
Butterworth, George Sainton Kaye (1885–1916), composer and folk dancer, was born on 12 July 1885 at 16 Westbourne Square, Paddington, London, the only child of Sir Alexander Kaye Butterworth (1854–1946), a solicitor and later general manager of the North Eastern Railway Company, and his wife, ...
Article
Byron, Henry James (1835–1884), playwright and actor
Peter Thomson
Byron, Henry James (1835–1884), playwright and actor, was born in Manchester on 8 January 1835. His father, Henry Byron (1804–1884), British consul in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, was second cousin to the poet Lord Byron. His mother, Elizabeth Josephine, was the daughter of Dr Bradley...
Article
Calvert, Charles Alexander (1828–1879), actor and theatre manager
Richard Foulkes
Calvert, Charles Alexander (1828–1879), actor and theatre manager, was born in London on 28 February 1828, the son of William Henry Calvert (d. 1857), a silk merchant, who claimed descent from George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore. A. W. Ward's assertion (...
Article
Carpenter, Humphrey William Bouverie (1946–2005), author, broadcaster, and musician
Libby Purves
Carpenter, Humphrey William Bouverie (1946–2005), author, broadcaster, and musician, was born on 29 April 1946 at the Radcliffe Maternity Home, Oxford, the only child of Harry James Carpenter (1901–1993), warden of Keble College and later bishop of Oxford, and his wife, Urith Monica, ...
Article
Carson, Violet Helen (1898–1983), actress
Anthony Hayward
Carson, Violet Helen (1898–1983), actress, was born on 1 September 1898 at 1 Corporation Terrace, in the Ancoats district of Manchester, one of at least two daughters of William Brown Carson, a Scottish flour miller, and his wife, Mary Clarke Tordoff, an amateur singer. ...
