Up for auction "Dramatist" Henry Neville Hand Clipped Signature.
ES-7351E
Thomas
Henry Gartside Neville (20
June 1837 – 19 June 1910) was an English actor, dramatist, teacher and theatre manager. He began his career playing dashing juvenile
leads, later specialising in Shakespearean roles, modern comedy and melodrama.
His most famous role was as Bob Brierley in Tom Taylor's The Ticket-of-Leave Man.
As the manager of the Olympic Theatre from 1873 to 1879, he presented numerous
successful productions. In later years, he became a respected character actor. Neville
was born in Manchester, England, son of John Garside
Neville and his second wife Mary Anna, née Gartside (died
1895). He was the twentieth child of his father, an actor and the manager
of Queen's Theatre, Spring Gardens, Manchester, who himself was the twentieth
child of his father. Though Neville senior was in the
theatre, there were strong military traditions on both sides of the family, and
John Neville was opposed to his son's decision to pursue a theatrical rather
than a military career and refused to help him. Neville had one brother,
George (born c. 1839), one sister, Josaphine (c. 1838–1895), and nineteen
half-brothers and sisters. From
1857 to 1860 Neville acted in the English provinces and Scotland. When the
tragedian John Vandenhoff made
his farewell performance in 1858 at the Theatre Royal, Liverpool, Neville played Cromwell to Vandenhoff's Wolsey
in Shakespeare's King Henry VIII. He made his London debut in 1860 as Percy
Ardent in Dion Boucicault's The
Irish Heiress at the Lyceum Theatre. The Observer said of his performance: "Mr Henry
Neville, a new importation from Liverpool, was gentlemanly and easy, of good
manners and dashing appearance; and he promises to fill a dreary gap in the
London theatrical world – the line of jeunes premières." He
attracted further good notices for his next role, in The Love Chase,
receiving encouragement from The Times "as a
representative of young men of something like rank and position." The
same year, he played Victor Savignie in Arrienne at the Lyceum
and, at the Olympic Theatre, he played
Ivan in Serf and Valjean in an adaptation of Les Miserables.
In May 1863, still at the Olympic,
Neville created the role of Bob Brierley in Tom Taylor's drama about the dismal life of a released
convict, The Ticket-of-Leave Man,
a character in which he made the success of his career. He played in its long
first run and revivals for a total of about 2000 performances. In 1865, he played the title role in
Taylor's Henry Dunbar at the Olympic opposite Kate Terry, and in 1867 was her chosen Romeo to her Juliet
in her farewell London performances at the Adelphi
Theatre. 1867 had been a busy year for Neville at the Adelphi, where
he played Job Arnroyd in Lost in London, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing,
Dunbar again, Farmer Allan in Dora, Richard Watt in His
First Champagne, Claude Meinotee in Lady of Lyons, Walter
Maidenblush in Little Treasure, Sir Thomas Clifford in Hunchback,
and George Vendale in No Thoroughfare, another notable success. The next year at
the Adelphi, he played the title role in Hamlet and repeated Robert Brierley. In 1869, still
at the Adelphi, he portrayed the role of Vernon Wainwright in Eve. At the Gaiety Theatre in the
same year, he played an important role in W. S. Gilbert's early comedy, An Old Score. Neville continued
building his reputation on the London stage in the 1870s as actor and also as
the manager of the Olympic Theatre from 1873 to 1879, where his company
included rising actors such as Rutland Barrington, Helen Ernstone, Emily Fowler and Johnston Forbes-Robertson. In 1870, he played Henry Little in Put
Yourself in His Place at the Adelphi. In 1872 he had a great success in The School for Scandal of which The Times said,
"Mr Henry Neville is the leading actor in the class of characters in which
Charles Surface is comprised." This was followed, at the Olympic,
by The School for Intrigue, in which he played the part of
Almaviva. Other successes during the 1870s, both as manager and actor, included
his portrayal of Lord Clancarty in Taylor's Lady Clancarty, Pierre
in John Oxenford's The Two Orphans in 1874, an 1874–75
revival of The Ticket-of-Leave Man, and Franklin Blake in a
dramatisation of Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone in 1877. In the same year he produced
and starred in a revival of Lady Audley's Secret by Robert
Walters. He also produced W. S. Gilbert's plays The Ne'er-do-Weel in
1878 and Gretchen in 1879. In 1878, Neville opened a successful
drama school which he managed for many years. By the 1880s, he had become
famous in melodrama roles, playing the romantic
lead. His Shakespeare roles included Jaques in As You Like It, produced by Madame Modjeska (1882) and
Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing. In 1888, he played Count
Heidegger in Handsome Is that Handsome Does, a comedy by C. J.
Ribton Turner at the Vaudeville Theatre. At
the Olympic that year, he reprised the role Pierre in The Two Orphans and
appeared in Hands Across the Sea by Henry Pettitt.