1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Wyndham, Sir Charles

WYNDHAM, SIR CHARLES (1837–), English actor, was born in Liverpool on the 23rd of March 1837, the son of a doctor. He was educated abroad, at King's College, London and at the College of Surgeons and the Peter Street Anatomical School, Dublin, but his taste for the stage was too strong for him to take up either the clerical or the medical career, suggested for him, and early in 1862 he made a first appearance in London as an actor. Later in the year, being in America, he volunteered during the Civil War, and became brigade surgeon in the Federal army, resigning in 1864 to appear on the stage in New York with John Wilkes Booth. Returning to England, he played at Manchester and Dublin in Her Ladyship's Guardian, his own adaptation of Edward B. Hamley's novel Lady Lee's Widowhood. He reappeared in London in 1866 as Sir Arthur Lascelles in Morton's All that Glitters is not Gold, but his great success at that time was in F. C. Burnand's, burlesque of Black-eyed Susan, as Hatchett, “with dance.” This brought him to the St James's theatre, where he played with Henry Irving in Idalia; then with Ellen Terry in Charles Reade's Double Marriage, and Tom Taylor's Still Waters Run Deep. As Charles Surface, his best part for many years, and in a breezy three-act farce. Pink Dominoes, by James Albery, and in Brighton, an anglicized version of Saratoga by Bronson Howard (1842–1908), who married his sister, he added greatly to his popularity both at home and abroad. In 1876 he took control of the Criterion theatre. Here he produced a long succession of plays, in which he took the leading part, notably a number of old English comedies, and in such modern plays as The Liars, The Case of Rebellious Susan and others by Henry Arthur Jones, and he became famous for his acting in David Garrick. In 1899 he opened his new theatre, called Wyndham's. In 1902 he was knighted. From 1885 onwards his leading actress was Miss Mary Moore (Mrs Albery), who became his partner in the proprietorship of the Criterion and Wyndham's theatres, and of his New Theatre, opened in 1903; and her delightful acting in comedy made their long association memorable on the London stage.