The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Rignold, George
Rignold, George, the actor, is a native of Bristol, England. His mother, Patience Blaxland Rignold, was an actress, and played with Macready and Phelps. George Rignold was not originally intended for the stage. He first entered the musical profession, and played in the orchestra of a provincial theatre; but eventually he began his dramatic career at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham. Mr. Rignold made his most important success in Henry the Fifth; but his name is intimately connected with Lord Clancarty, Cromwell, Harold, The White Pilgrim, Caliban in The Tempest, Amos Clarke, Mephistopheles in Faust, Marc Antony in Julius Cæsar, and Bottom in The Midsummer Night's Dream. After Mr. Rignold had gained a London reputation, he went to America in 1876, and secured great popularity. From the United States he went to Australia, played a star engagement, and entered into active management with the late Mr. James Allison at Adelaide. Paying a visit to England, he played Henry the Fifth at Drury Lane, and again went to Australia, where for the last seven years he has held a leading position as an actor-manager. In Nov. 1887 Mr. Rignold opened Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney (of which he has since been lessee and manager) with Henry the Fifth. Since then he has produced, amongst other plays, Julius Cæsar, The Midsummer Night's Dream, Antony and Cleopatra, and a local version of Goethe's Faust. Mrs. George Rignold, who has now abandoned the stage, was an attractive actress, and appeared in Australia during her husband's earlier colonial career; while Mr. William Rignold, an admirable English character actor, brother of the above, has recently gone to Australia, where, in addition to his own well-known type of modern character, he has made quite a sensation by his remarkable performance of Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor.