13 Facts About Johnston Forbes-Robertson

Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson was an English actor and theatre manager and husband of actress Gertrude Elliott.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson was considered the finest Hamlet of the Victorian era and one of the finest actors of his time, despite his dislike of the job and his lifelong belief that he was temperamentally unsuited to acting.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson began a theatrical career, out of a desire to be self-supporting, when the dramatist William Gorman Wills, who had seen him in private theatricals, offered him a role in his play Mary Queen of Scots.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson was hailed as one of the most individual and refined of English actors.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson was a personal friend of the Duke of Sutherland and his family and often stayed with them at Trentham Hall; he is known to have recommended to them various writers and musicians in dire need of assistance.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson first came to prominence playing second leads to Henry Irving before making his mark in the role of Hamlet.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson did not play Hamlet until he was 44 years old, but after his success in the part he continued playing it until 1916, including a surviving silent film.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson was a talented painter who did a portrait of his mentor Samuel Phelps that currently hangs in the Garrick Club in London.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson acted in plays with the actress Mary Anderson in the 1880s.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson became smitten with her, fell in love with her and asked her hand in marriage.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson kindly turned him down though they remained friends.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson was a regular speaker at events in support of suffrage.

Johnston Forbes-Robertson was knighted in 1913 at the age of 60, at which point he retired briefly from acting.