Henry Leigh Murray

While a clerk in a merchant's office he made a start on amateur acting, in a small theatre in Catherine Street, Strand, his first appearance being about 1838 as Buckingham in King Richard III.

Other Shakespearean parts followed, and on 2 December 1839, under Hooper, manager of the York circuit, he made his professional debut at Kingston upon Hull, playing Ludovico in Othello.

Among the characters he played were Dr. Caius, Jan Dousterswyvel in The Lost Ship by William Thompson Townsend, Hotspur, and Mark Antony as his farewell to the Edinburgh stage.

[1] Murray's first appearance in London took place at the Princess's Theatre under J. M. Maddox on 19 April 1845, as Sir Thomas Clifford in The Hunchback by Sheridan Knowles, with Lester Wallack in the lead, Charlotte Cushman as Julia and Walter Lacy playing Lord Tinsel.

On the recommendation of Charles Dickens he was chosen at the Lyceum Theatre to play Alfred Heathfield in Albert Richard Smith's adaptation of The Battle of Life.

There he played character parts in pieces then in vogue, such as Time Tries All (John Courtney), and His First Champagne (William Leman Rede).

In the theatricals given during 1848 and 1849 at Windsor Castle he played Lorenzo in the Merchant of Venice, Laertes, Octavius in Julius Caesar, and Gustavus in Charles XII (James Robinson Planché).

[1] On 4 November 1856 Murray reappeared at the Adelphi as Sir Walter Raeburn in the Border Marriage (Un Mariage à l'Arquebuse, by Léon Guillard).