ABOUT GEORGE RIGNOLD.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1632, 26 December 1912, Page 6

ABOUT GEORGE RIGNOLD.

EARLY SUCCESSES IN AUSTRALIA.

If to have done one thing superlatively well is anything (says ihe Melbourne "Argus"), George. Rignold will be remembered as "the.best "Henry . Y" of his generation... The actor's art dies with him, and all the great exponents of the drama are mere names. But so long as those live who. saw. "Henry V" acted by "Handsome George," as he was called, so long* will .the name of Rignold be- remembered." '''".. George Rignold came of a family of actors,' being the son of William Ri> nold, brother of AVilliam . Rignold thu second, and cousin of- Lionel Rignold,- who is now a prominent .veteran of the stage in London. He was married twice, his first wife being Miss Mary Braybr'ooke Henderson, his second Miss "Gina" Coppin,'" well known in Melbourne, and the daughter, of.the late George Coppin. He started Kis' stage career in Bath and Bristol, playing the unimportant part of Theseus' in the "Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Theatre Royal,of the latter city: This was in 1563. In 1870 ho made his first great success at the .Queen's Theatre as Sir John Brydges in "'Twixt Axe. and- Crown," : and a. year -later, he played .the.'impossible' young hero,' Wil-" liam, in "Black-eyed Susan,'' at the Holborn Theatre. That sanio year he played at the Queen's Theatre again in,"Joan of Arc" and as Caliban in "The Tempest"—a character which will be remembered out here. Other Shakespearean heroes of his youth were Romeo and Leonatus; In 187 ahe toured the' United States,'.'where he appeared (at. Booth's Theatre;' New York) as Henry V, and created a sensation. All the ladies were in. love with him, and he was the idol' of the hour\ Returning to England, he played the same part at Drury Lane in 1879, and, made himself famous. One finds-him here and there in contemporary literature; in Besant's ."Golden Butterfly" ho is mentioned, and he .inspired a' well-known picture by, a German painter. After a short-season at the Duke's Theatre he.left in 1880 for Australia,. Here., he established himself at the .Royal-in -Melbourne, producing "such spectacular me10... dramas as "Youth,"- -"In -the' Ranks,"' "The Lights of IjOndon," and "Called Back." Fiercely Combating the dictum that "Shakespeare spells ruin," ho gave many notable revivals of the Shakespearean plays, and found that melodrama paid better. At Her Majesty's Theatre in Sydney he gave the public some really

splendid characterisations. With Janet v ,Achurch as Lady Macbeth, he took the titlo Tole in Shakespeare's tragedy, and did it better than it has been done since in Australia. His Othello, with Miss Lilian Wheeler as Desdemona, was an- . other fine performance, challenging Wilson Barrett's portrayal- .'a few months afterwards,; and'-beating it easily, and- ' being at least .cquallto that of Mr*. Oscar, Asche. Iff, production of "The Midsummer Night's J)reain,"~in which Miss Hilda Spong, then a recent . recruit to the stage, made a charming Titania, Mr.-Jlignold' took the part of Bottom, and revealed a fund of comedy which been suspected. His, Marc Antony was something to Temcmber, and his Henry* V, of course, was very fine; indeed. ' 'i: ..' ~ ,; In the Civic Club in' Sydney hangs a portrait of-Mr.-Rignold,. and beneath it is inscribed, Jh'.thp;words -of Othello; "I have dono'-the State some service,. and they know.it.!' ;,ThisJs not a little, characteristic of -"Handsome George." : Whatever else he was, he was not a shrinking

violet. Many are the good stories told *> of his Tipe appreciation of his place in the scheme of things theatrical. The. limelight man followed him with sedulous and loving care. On one occasion, as he was storming the breach as Henry V, a banner, held by Mr..' Earn' Sweeney, _ fell between his nobility and the spot-light. In a fierce wliisper-^and : BignoM's whispers carried better than many another actor's ordinary voice—Henry added an impromptu line to his great speech— "Move the thing out of the way, you fool." The banner was moved, and the light fell agajh:.on ; his. .kingly head. , ; Mr. Eignold'si-last-part was that of Jason in Mr. Bland Holt's production of "The Bondman" four years ago in Melbourne. - - -