GREAT RACONTEUR

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 23, 28 January 1938, Page 17

GREAT RACONTEUR

FORBES-ROBERTSON

FAMOUS VICTORIAN ACTOR

CAREER RECALLED

Sir.Johnston Forbes-Robertson, the famous actor-manager, whose death was announced at his country home, Bloms. St. Margaret's- Bay, recently, had spent every summer there with his wife and' family for the past twenty years, writes Elliseva Sayers in the "Daily Mail." About a hundred yards away, at Channel' Cottage, live the well-known American author and his wife, Mr. and1 Mrs. Vincent Sheean, son-in-law and daughter of Sir Johnston. I saw I them when he first became seriously ill, and they told me of the bravery and good spirits of the famous eighty-four-years-old actor. Instead of needing the company of other people to keep'hlm amused, he kept them amused, even on his deathbed. •'He is at his best when he talks," Diana Sheean told -me then. "He loves to reminisce. He tells lively anecdotes In a way that is altogether his own. But they need his personality. If I were to repeat one of them the whole point would be lost. With great charm he tells us of things of the past, things that seem like history to us. One bf.his stories was about Jimmy Whistler. At a party he saw a strange man'- whom nobody knew standing forlorn at the door. "'Pardon me,' said Whistler, going up to him, 'but are you somebody's brother?' "When I relate it, the story sounds flat, but when daddy -told it, it -was really funny. "Sir Johnston was a great raconteur. He used'to talk familiarly about people like Ellen Terry, Liszt, and dv Maurier." > LIFE IN HIS. GARDEN. She told me how he spent his last days before his illness. "He used to potter about the ■ garden and read during the day. He insisted on seeing his grandchild, our daughter, Linda, every day. "It is a lovely garden, even now. Sir Johnston rarely went outside it in the last few months, when it was full of pink, red, and yellow autumn, roses; and snapdragons. "Mother would often drive him in the car. But the last time he left Bloms was about the end of September, when he lustbed with George Arliss, who has a cottage not far from ours." Until a few years ago, Sir Johnston painted a great deal. One of his most amusing stories was how his fellow art students came to.see him at his first performance at the old Princess Theatre, London, where he was playing with the then famous Mrs. Rousby. "They came in great numbers," he1 said, "but it was only to laugh at me. That was part of the fun." THE LAST VICTORIAN. Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson was the''last of the great Victorian actors and the greatest Hamlet of his time. It is more than twenty years since he retired. In those twenty years no one has come to fill his place. ' '• Shaw wrote "Caesar and Cleopatra" for him. Ellen Terry, Mary Anderson, Mme. Modjeska, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Julia Neilson, and Gertrude Elliott —some of the most-beautiful women of their day—acted with him. His. golden voice became an. almost legendary glory of the stage. His handsome, romantic, and distinguished presence, his ascetic features and curling hair, will never be forgotten by those who saw him. During his forty years' career ho played many parts; but it is generally agreed that Hamlet was his greatest, It was as Hamlet that he bade' fare-' well to the' stage in America, It was as Hamlet that as a boy of thirteen he first tried to act (with his sister as Ophelia), .'with Swinburne sprawling on a carpet and Rossetti seated among the.. audience in his father' 3 drawing-room. There was always a background of culture to. his work. He was himself a portrait painter of merit. Forbes-Robertson was as well known in the United States"as in Great Britain. He paid his first visit to New York, more than fifty years ago with j Mary Anderson, and his last following | his farewell at Drury Lane during the I war. • ; . I SUCCESS WITH MODERNS. Great classic actor as he was, his for. tune was made in modern plays. "Mice and Men" was his first big success. Kipling's "The Light That Failed" was his second. Jerome X, Jerome's "Passing of the Third Floor Back," first seen at St. James's in 1908, was the third and perhaps greatest of all. He married a charming American girl, Gertrude Elliott, in 1900, and she was associated with him in these and other successes. Forbes-Robertson retired from the London stage in 1913, and was knighted during the last week of his farewell season. Then came his American tour, and his only 'appearances after that were at an occasional charity matinee and at the performance of "Twelfth Night" organised by fifteen Forbes-Robertsons jn 1927. He then played the small part of the priest. Since then he had lived quietly at home. - His daughter, Jean ForbesRobertson, one of the most accomplished actresses of the day, remains to carry pn the fine tradition of his family. A LONDON ABERDOMAN. Johnston Forbes-Robertson was born in London, of Aberdonian stock, in 1853, in the house in which he spent many years of his life. He was educated at Charterhouse,' became an art student akthe Royal Academy in 1870, studied elocution under Samuel Phelps, and first appeared upon the stage at the age of twenty-one in "Mary Queen of Scots," at the old Princess's Theatre. Afte^r' that he toured with Ellen Terry, played various' Shakespearean roles, was seen in "Money," "The Lady of Lyons," "She Stoops to Conquer," and "Diplomacy" (as Count Orloff), among other plays. He acted with the Bancrofts in "Ours" and other Robertson comedies, supported Wilson Barrett, and in 1882 joined Henry Irving at the Lyceum. He went to New York with Mary Anderson in 1885, joined John Hare in 1888, and rejoined Irving'in 1895. He played Romeo, Shylock, Othello, Petruchio, Captain Absolute, and Joseph Surface. He created the part of Lucas Cleeve in Pinero's "Mrs. Ebbsmith," and the Rev. Michael Feversham in Henry Arthur Jones's-"Michael and His Lost Angel." He appeared in: a film of "Hamlet" as long ago as 1912, and was also in "Masks and Faces" in 1916, and "The Passing of the Third Floor Back" in 1947, He wrote a book of reminiscences, "A Player Under Three Reigns," in 1925. Alexander Scott-Gatty, who-appear-ed with Forbes-Robertson during his farewell tour, twenty-four years, ago, died a few hours later. He did not know of Sir Johnston's death.

The Straits Settlement Government is to introduce a bill for the "more effective prevention of corruption in public and private business. Maximum penalties of 5000 dollars and/or seven years' imprisonment arc provided.