Thomas King (actor)
Articled to a London solicitor, he was taken to a dramatic school, and in 1747, with Edward Shuter, he ran away, and joined a travelling company at Tunbridge.
[2] He was in the same season the original Murza in Samuel Johnson's Irene, and played a part in The Hen-Peck'd Captain, a farce said to be based on The Campaigners by Thomas d'Urfey.
On his return to Drury Lane King found himself announced for George Barnwell in The London Merchant, one of his Bristol roles.
[1] King's first appearance under Thomas Sheridan at the Smock Alley Theatre took place in September 1750, as Ranger in the Suspicious Husband.
King remained there for eight years, making his reputation in comedy, with one season, beginning in September 1755, when he was the manager and principal actor at the Bath Theatre.
Love at First Sight, a ballad-farce, by him (1763), was acted at Drury Lane on 17 October 1763, King playing in it Smatter, a servant who personates his master.
Wit's Last Stake (1769), another farce, was given at Drury Lane on 14 April 1768; It was an adaptation of Le Légataire Universel by Jean-François Regnard, and its success was attributed to King's reading of the part of Martin, the Crispin of the original, a servant who personates a man supposed to be dying, and dictates a will by which he himself benefits.
He made some changes in the performances, raised the prices of admission, and provided horse patrols, to guard through a dangerous district the fashionable visitors whom he attracted.
In 1785 he seems to have resumed his management of Drury Lane, and is said to have been responsible for the successful pantomime of that year, Hurly Burly, or the Fairy of the Well.
[1] On 20 November 1789 King made, as Touchstone, his first appearance at Covent Garden, and the same evening was the original Sir John Trotley in Bon Ton by Garrick.
After playing several of his best-known characters, he appeared for his benefit on 2 February 1790 as Sancho in Lovers' Quarrels, which was an adaptation, attributed to King himself, of John Vanbrugh's The Mistake.
On 23 October 1790, as Lord Ogleby, he reappeared at Drury Lane, and during the rebuilding of the theatre moved with the company to the Haymarket Opera House.
On 2 August 1792 he played at the Haymarket Falstaff in the First Part of King Henry IV, and on the 23rd was General Touchwood in Cross Partners, a comedy announced as by a lady.
In September 1792 he rejoined the Drury Lane company, then playing at the Haymarket, and in March 1794 appeared with them at their newly built home, where he remained until the end of his career.
His pall-bearers included Alexander Pope, John Moody, Richard Wroughton, Robert Palmer, William Powell, Henry Siddons, and other actors.
