Charles Januarius Edward Cardinal Acton (6 March 1803 – 23 June 1847) was an English Roman Catholic prelate.

The family, a cadet branch of the Actons of Aldenham Park, near Bridgnorth, in Shropshire, had settled in Naples some time before his birth.

His father was first minister of the Kingdom of Naples when he succeeded to the family estate and title through the death of his cousin, Sir Richard Acton, 5th Baronet.

The future Cardinal's education was English, as he and his elder brother were sent to England on their father's death in 1811 to a school near London kept by the Abbé Quéqué.

An essay of his attracted the attention of the Secretary of State, della Somaglia, and Pope Leo XII made him a chamberlain and attaché to the Paris Nunciature, where he had the best opportunity to become acquainted with diplomacy.

[citation needed] Pope Pius VIII recalled him and named him vice-legate, granting him choice of any of the four legations over which cardinals presided.

His strength, never very great, began to decline, and a severe attack of ague made him seek rest and recuperation, first at Palermo and then at Naples, but without avail, as he died in the latter city.