Macrealy
WILLIAM CHARLES (-rē'di), an English tragedian; born in London, England, March 3, 1793. His father, the lessee and manager of several provincial theaters, sent him to Rugby and Oxford to be educated, but his circumstances became embarrassed, and the youth had to join his father's company at Birmingham in 1810. Afterward he played in the provinces with considerable success, and appeared at Covent Garden in 1816. In 1820 he made his first visit to America, and in 1828 played in Paris, with great success in both countries. He undertook the management of Covent Garden in 1837, and Drury Lane in 1842, but though he did much to reform the stage and cultivate the public taste for Shakespearean drama in both theaters (he himself taking the leading parts in Shakespeare's plays), his pecuniary losses required him to retire from managership. He revisited the United States in 1849; returned to England; gave a series of farewell performances, and finally retired from the stage in 1861. He died in Cheltenham, England, April 27, 1873. His "Reminiscences" appeared in