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Sir John Hare

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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SIR JOHN HARE (1844-), English actor and manager, was born in Yorkshire on the 16th of May 1844, and was educated at Giggleswick school, Yorkshire. He made his first appearance on the stage at Liverpool in 1864, coming to London in 1865, and acting for ten years with the Bancrofts. He soon made his mark, particularly in T. W. Robertson's comedies, and in 1875 became manager of the Court theatre. But it was in association with Mr and Mrs Kendal at the St James's theatre from 1879 to 1888 that he established his popularity in London, in important "character" and "men of the world" parts, the joint management of Hare and Kendal making this theatre one of the chief centres of the dramatic world for a decade. In 1889 he became lessee and manager of the Garrick theatre, where (though he was often out of the cast) he produced several important plays, such as Pinero's The Profligate and The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith, and had a remarkable personal success in the chief part in Sydney Grundy's A Pair of Spectacles. In 1897 he took the Globe theatre, where his acting in Pinero's Gay Lord Quex was another personal, triumph. He became almost as well known in the United States as in England, his last tour in America being in 1900 and 1901. He was knighted in 1907.