1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Willard, Edward Smith

WILLARD, EDWARD SMITH (1853-1915), British actor, was born at Brighton Jan. 9 1853 and first appeared in The Lady of Lyons at Weymouth at the age of sixteen. He toured first with E. H. Sothern and then joined various stock companies, coming to London in 1875 and playing Antonio in The Merchant of Venice with Charles Rice in 1876. After a varied experience in Shakespearean and other plays he was engaged by Wilson Barrett in 1881 for the Princess's theatre, London, and until 1886 played leading parts in many melodramas, the most notable amongst them being “The Spider” in Henry Arthur Jones's The Silver King. In 1889 he produced Jones's The Middleman at the Shaftesbury theatre, London, afterward taking it to America. He played Professor Goodwillie in Barrie's The Professor's Love Story in 1894 at the Comedy theatre, London. After 1903 he acted only in America, repeating these and other roles; but in 1911 he played Brutus at the Gala performance of scenes from Julius Caesar at His Majesty's theatre, London. He died in London Nov. 9 1915.