John Baldwin Buckstone

John Baldwin Buckstone (14 September 1802 – 31 October 1879) was an English actor, playwright and comedian who wrote 150 plays, the first of which was produced in 1826.

At that theatre, his acting was praised in The Housekeeper by Douglas Jerrold (1833), Pyramus and Thisbe, and in his own plays, Uncle John, Rural Felicity and Agnes de Vere (all in 1834).

During this period, he memorably played Moses in Stirling Coyne's adaptation of The Vicar of Wakefield, Appleface in Jerrold's Catspaw, Shadowly Softhead in Lord Lytton's Not as Bad as We Seem and in many Shakespeare productions with Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kean.

As actor-manager of the Haymarket, he surrounded himself with an admirable and effective ensemble company, including Edward Askew Sothern, Henry Compton, Mr. and Mrs. Charles James Mathews and the Kendals.

He produced the plays of James Planché, Thomas William Robertson, Tom Taylor, John Oxenford, H. J. Byron and W. S. Gilbert, as well as his own, and in most of these he acted.

[3] In the 1850s, Buckstone produced An Unequal Match and Taylor's The Overland Route, A Hero of Romance by Westland Marston, and Home by Robertson.

[10] In 1868, Buckstone's son Frederick appeared at the theatre in Walter Gordon's farce Pay to the Bearer a Kiss.

[11] W. S. Gilbert premiered seven of his plays at the Haymarket during this time including his blank verse "fairy comedies" starring the Kendals, such as The Palace of Truth (1870), Pygmalion and Galatea (1871) and The Wicked World (1873).

By the mid-1870s, however, Buckstone's company was disbanding, and in 1877, ill and bankrupt after sustaining heavy losses, he gave up management of the theatre.

[17] After three years of ill health, Buckstone died at his home, Bell Green Lodge, in Lower Sydenham in 1879 at the age of 77 and was buried in Ladywell Cemetery.

[19] In 2009, The Daily Telegraph reported that the actor Patrick Stewart saw the ghost standing in the wings during a performance of Waiting for Godot at the Haymarket.