Henry Woodward (English actor)

During the season the performance was repeated fifteen times, and Woodward, thoroughly stage-struck, remained with Rich, who instructed him in harlequin and other characters.

After the company moved to Lincoln's Inn Fields, Woodward appeared in January 1737 as Harlequin Macheath in The Beggars' Pantomime, or the Contending Columbines.

The authorship of this is ascribed to "Lun junior", i.e. Woodward, who dedicated to Kitty Clive and Susannah Maria Cibber the printed version of 1736.

[1] In 1737, at the end of the season, the theatre was closed, and Woodward went to Drury Lane, appearing in January 1738 as Feeble in Henry IV Part 2.

[1] Engaged by Thomas Sheridan for Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, Woodward made his first appearance there in September 1747 as Marplot in Susanna Centlivre's The Busie Body.

It was a compression, with some slight alterations by Woodward, of Susanna Centlivre's Marplot, a continuation of The Busie Body, and was seen again in Dublin and at Covent Garden.

[1] In October 1758 Crow Street Theatre, built by subscription, was opened under the new management, Woodward speaking a prologue but not acting.

On 17 April he died at his house, Chapel Street, Grosvenor Place, and was buried in the vaults of St George's, Hanover Square.

His figure was admirably formed and his expression so composed that he seemed qualified rather for tragedy or fine gentlemen than the brisk fops and pert coxcombs he ordinarily played.

He was unable, however, to speak a serious line with effect, but so soon as he had to charge his face with levity, and to display simulated consequence, brisk impertinence, or affected gaiety, he was the most engaging, consequential, and laughable of actors....