George Holland (actor)

Because of this Holland was taken home by his father and set to work in the silk and ribbon warehouse of Messrs. Hill & Newcombe, on Wood Street, in Cheapside, London.

Other ventures passed by, and at the age of nineteen George was apprenticed to Mr. Thomas Davison, of Whitefriars, to learn the trade of printer, and in a vain pursuit of skill in which vocation he spent two years.

He was a vigorous young man who was a member of a boat club, he could—and frequently did—row from London Bridge to Richmond and back again, twenty miles (32 km) each way.

Young Holland's way of life was unfit for the printing business, and when twenty-one years of age he was fortunate enough to get his indentures cancelled.

He wandered to Liverpool, then to Dublin in 1816 where, at the age of 25, he established a business to sell bobbin lace, manufactured in Nottingham.

The bobbin lace business lasted six months, when Holland settled his affairs, and returned to England to embark on a theatrical career which continued, through many vicissitudes of fortune, for the rest of his life.

At Christmas, 1826, Junius Brutus Booth, then stage-manager of the Chatham Theatre, New York, sent a letter, offering him an American engagement.

In 1829, he acted in theatres in the populous cities of the United States, such as Boston, Louisville, Cincinnati, Natchez, Vicksburg, Montgomery, Mobile, Philadelphia, Salem, and Providence.

Holland, indeed, was always a popular man, and if his business capacity had kept pace with his professional success he would have gained a large fortune.

This was "the cholera season of 1832," and the performances given by Holland exerted a cheering and reassuring influence over the public mind.

Holland was in New Orleans afterwards, in the post of private secretary to J. H. Caldwell and treasurer of the St. Charles Theatre.

The season of 1835 – 36 began on 30 November 1835, with Charlotte Cushman as the star, playing Patrick, in "The Poor Soldier;" Helen Macgregor, in "Rob Roy;" Peter Wilkins, Lady Macbeth, and other parts.

In 1855, he returned to New York, to Wallack's Theatre, appearing on 12 September as Chubb in John Brougham's "Game of Love."

Holland is interred in Cypress Hills Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York, in the American Dramatic Fund Association Plot.