William Macready

William Charles Macready (1793 to 1873) was an English stage actor and one of the leading performers of the London theatre in the Regency era. He was the son of William Macready the Elder, an Irish actor-manager, and so grew up inside the working world of the touring and metropolitan stage. His rise to prominence on the West End placed him among the principal tragic actors of his generation. He is held in the Film and Media Atlas as a figure of the performing tradition that preceded recorded and broadcast media, an ancestor of the screen acting profession whose training and repertory fed later theatre and film practice. This entry rests on the lead of his English Wikipedia article, which gives his dates, nationality, trade and parentage.