Ryan, Lacy

c.1694

1760

Born about 1694, Lacy Ryan was named as a member of the Queen’s Theatre troupe as early as December 1709 and is known to have acted Rosencrantz in "Hamlet" on 1 July 1710 at Greenwich. He then moved to Drury Lane, where he was kept busy with small roles and then major characters until 1718, when he joined the manager John Rich at Lincoln’s Inn Fields. There (and at Covent Garden from 1732 on) he remained until his death in 1760, playing such important Shakespearean roles as Hamlet (as early as 26 February 1719, his best role), Hotspur, Prince Hal, Iago, Wolsey, Benedick and the Ghost in "Hamlet" (as late as 18 March 1760, his last appearance) (G0049). Some of his non-Shakespearean parts were Pinchwife and also Horner in "The Country Wife", the title role in "Oroonoko", Tom in "The Conscious Lovers", Mosca in "Volpone", Mirabell in "The Way of the World" and Lothario in "The Fair Penitent". Despite the importance of his roles and the energy he showed during a long career, Ryan was seldom described as anything more than an ‘able’ actor. He was better-known because of at least three scuffles in real life: in 1713 he had a fight with some Thames watermen and received such a blow on his nose that his voice was altered; in 1718 Ryan killed a drunken Irishman named Kelley when Kelley drew his sword on the actor in a tavern; and in the worst, on 16 March 1735, Ryan was set upon by one or two footpads who left him with part of his face shot away. Remarkably, he recovered sufficiently to act again, though his voice was never the same, and for an actor brought up in the period of Thomas Betterton and Barton Booth, that must have been devastating. The public, as one would expect, was most sympathetic, and Ryan continued acting many of his old parts, even though critics wished he would abandon youthful characters for which he now lacked the necessary fire. Ryan died in August 1760. (BDA)[EAL]