Lionel Brough
He established his career in London as a member of the company at the new Queen's Theatre, Long Acre, in 1867, and he soon became known for his roles in Shakespeare, contemporary comedies, and classics, especially as Tony Lumpkin in She Stoops to Conquer.
[5] Brough made his stage debut at age 18 with the company of Madame Vestris to play in an extravaganza written by his brother William.
[7] As an amateur he appeared before Queen Victoria at the Lyceum Theatre in 1860 with the Savage Club, in a burlesque of the Ali Baba story called The Forty Thieves, and was judged by the critic of The Times to have played like a practised professional.
The Times wrote of him, "Mr Lionel Brough, an accession from the Liverpool stage, in the small part of Dard, showed the right and rare quality of humour without gag or grimace.... His appearance in other characters will be looked for with interest.
"[4][17] In addition to Tony Lumpkin and Ben Garner, according to Frederick Waddy, Brough's best-known early roles were Spotty in The Lancashire Lass, Sampson Burr in The Porter's Knot, Mark Meddle in London Assurance and Robin Wildbriar in Extremes.
[6] Though not trained as a singer, Brough was recruited in 1872 to join Joseph Fell's company at the Holborn Theatre in leading roles in popular musical works including F. C. Burnand's English version of La Vie parisienne.
In the 1870s and 1880s he increasingly augmented his popular parts in modern works with more revivals of classic comic roles, including Tony Lumpkin again, Croaker in Oliver Goldsmith's The Good-Natured Man, Dromio of Ephesus in The Comedy of Errors and Bob Acres in The Rivals.
[21] He appeared as Valentine in Mefistofele (1880) with Lizzie St Quentin in the title role, Fred Leslie as Faust and Constance Loseby as Marguerite.
[26] In the final phase of his career Brough was a regular member of Herbert Beerbohm Tree's company at Her Majesty's Theatre from 1894 until his death, becoming famous for his comedy roles in Shakespeare, including Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night, Touchstone in As You Like It, Trinculo in The Tempest, and the gardener in Richard II.
His last appearances were in 1909 as the grave-digger in Hamlet (described by The Observer as "ideal"), Moses in The School for Scandal, and the host of the Garter Inn in The Merry Wives of Windsor.
The Manchester Guardian said of him in its obituary, "His power of holding his audience and obtaining his effects by the simplest means, and with an expert knowledge of their value, made his work delightful.
In private life, Mr Brough was universally popular with a fund of anecdote which often kept the members of the Eccentric and other clubs in roars of laughter till the early hours of the morning.
