Benson, Frank (Sir)

1858

1939

Born at Alresford, Hampshire, on 4 November 1858, the son of a wealthy barrister, this actor-manager was educated at Winchester and Oxford. While at New College, Oxford, and a member of OUDS, he produced “Agamemnon” in the original Greek and acted Clytemnestra. In 1882 he made his professional debut as Paris in “Romeo and Juliet” under Irving at the Lyceum. In 1883 he formed a touring company and over the years in the provinces produced all of Shakespeare’s plays except “Troilus and Cressida” and “Titus Andronicus”. He brought his company to London for the first time in 1889-90, playing at the Globe, and returned to London numerous times. He regularly acted such Shakespearean roles as Hamlet, Lear, Coriolanus and Richard II and also performed in Canada and South Africa. Benson devoted himself mainly to the producing of Shakespeare’s plays, organizing 26 of the annual festivals from 1886 at Stratford-upon-Avon, where he served as a Governor of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre and Trustee of the Birthplace. As a manager and teacher at the acting school he founded in 1901, he trained a number of young actors who became known as ‘Bensonians.’ He became the only actor ever to be knighted in a theatre, when in 1916 George V knighted him at Drury Lane on the occasion of the Shakespeare Tercentenary celebration. In 1930 he published his “Memoirs”, and also wrote “I Want to Go on the Stage”. He had married in 1886 the actress Gertrude Constance Featherstonhaugh (1860-1946), who played leading roles in his company. Benson, who became a member of the Garrick Club in March 1893 (and also was a member of the Green Room Club), died in London on 31 December 1939 at age 81. (OCT, WWWT)