He was the first playwright to dramatize the fictional character Sweeney Todd, in his 1847 play The String of Pearls; or, The Fiend of Fleet Street.
The character was originally created by James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest and had first appeared in a penny dreadful serial titled The String of Pearls.
[5] In 1843 he became actor-manager of the Britannia Theatre, where he produced more sensational melodramas such as Pauline the Pirate in 1845 and Margaret Maddison, the Female Felon in 1846.
[6] Audiences were fascinated by the villain's complete lack of remorse, as well as by the stage device of the barber chair which inverted to eject its occupant, and the play became another long-running success.
He was survived by a daughter and three sons,[1] including Charles Dibdin Pitt, a well-known tragedian who toured America from 1847 and later became lessee of the Theatre Royal, Sheffield.