Henry Compton (actor)

Henry Compton (born Charles Mackenzie; 22 March 1805 – 15 September 1877) was an English actor best known for his Shakespearean comic roles.

He first appeared in London in 1837 and joined the company at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane later that year, again playing in Shakespeare.

[2] After being educated at Huntingdon and at a boarding school at Little Baddow in Essex, Compton was apprenticed to his mother's brother, who was a cloth merchant in Aldermanbury, near London.

[15] In December he was Tom in Peeping Tom of Coventry[16] Other roles included those of Tony Lumpkin in She Stoops to Conquer, Gnatbrain in Black-Eyed Susan, Silky in The Road to Ruin, Bailie Nicol Jarvie, Mawworm in Isaac Bickerstaff's The Hypocrite, Marrall in Philip Massinger's A New Way to Pay Old Debts, and Dr Ollapod in George Colman's The Poor Gentleman.

[18][19][20] In August 1840 he distinguished himself as Lublin Log jnr in the new piece Like Father Like Son at the English Opera House.

In 1853 he joined the company of John Baldwin Buckstone at the Haymarket Theatre, where he originated the role of Blenkinsop in An Unequal Match by Tom Taylor, Sir Solomon Frazer in Taylor's The Overland Route, De Vaudray in A Hero of Romance by Westland Marston, and Captain Mountraffe in Home by T. W. Robertson.

Compton's last role was in 1877 at the Prince of Wales's Theatre in Liverpool as Mawworm in The Hypocrite and Pangloss in George Colman's The Heir at Law.

[17] One of his most famous roles was as the Gravedigger in Hamlet, which he played often in his career, including at the Lyceum Theatre with Henry Irving in June 1875.

Compton was described as "an actor perfectly original in his style, and possessing a fund of dry, quiet humour that never failed to minister to the amusement of the playing public.

[28] When Compton became ill with cancer and was unable to work to support his family, his friends organised two benefit performances for him.

[29][30] Henry Irving, Joseph Jefferson, Squire Bancroft, Ellen Terry, J. L. Toole, Nellie Farren and many other leading stars took part.

The chorus comprised leading stars such as W. S. Penley, George Grossmith, Kate Bishop and Marion Terry.

[31] Compton died in 1877 after a long struggle with cancer at the age of 72 at his home, Seaforth House, Stanford Road, St. Mary Abbotts in Kensington, London.