The following year, he was playing bit parts in West End productions, including the St. James’s Theatre and the Pinero’s Mid Channel.
Over the next few years, as his reputation grew, he performed with many of the outstanding actors of the era, including Beerbohm Tree, Constance Collier, and Marion Terry.
The early 1920s was his golden period and he was the male lead opposite such actresses as Gladys Cooper, Fay Compton, Madge Titheradge and Daisy Burrell.
Nares continued to star in popular West End shows, almost without pause, until 1926, when he then took a break and set off with his own company for a tour of South Africa.
While touring the room where Siddons was born, Nares had a heart attack[citation needed] and died shortly afterwards, aged 54, on 30 July 1943.