Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson (16 January 1853 – 6 November 1937[1]) was an English actor and theatre manager and husband of actress Gertrude Elliott.

[1] Born in London, he was the eldest of the eleven children of John Forbes-Robertson, a theatre critic and journalist from Aberdeen, and his wife Frances.

He was a personal friend of the Duke of Sutherland and his family and often stayed with them at Trentham Hall; he is known to have recommended to them various writers and musicians in dire need of assistance.

Forbes-Robertson first came to prominence playing second leads to Henry Irving before making his mark in the role of Hamlet.

In 1882, he starred with Lottie Venne and Marion Terry in G. W. Godfrey's comedy The Parvenu at the Court Theatre.

… Mr. Forbes-Robertson’s own performance has a continuous charm, interest and variety, which are the result not only of his well-known grace and accomplishment as an actor, but of a genuine delight – the rarest thing on our stage – in Shakespeare’s art, and a natural familiarity with the plane of his imagination.

[5]Forbes-Robertson was also a talented painter who did a portrait of his mentor Samuel Phelps that currently hangs in the Garrick Club in London.

On 26 November 1908 he chaired the inaugural meeting of the Actresses' Franchise League at the Criterion Restaurant in Piccadilly Circus, London.

[8] His literary works include The Life and Life-Work of Samuel Phelps (actor and theatre manager) as well as his own autobiography A Player Under Three Reigns (1925).