John Mills (18th-century actor)

John Mills
John Mills
Nationality	British
Occupation	Actor

Last updated March 10, 2024

John Mills (died 1736) was a British actor.

Biography

Mills was said by Downes in his ‘Roscius Anglicanus’ to ‘excel in Tragedy,’ appears to have joined the company at Drury Lane and Dorset Garden after the secession in 1695 of Betterton, Mrs. Barry, and other actors to Lincoln's Inn Fields. Judging by the parts then assigned him, he must have had some previous experience. He was the original Lawyer in Cibber's ‘Love's Last Shift,’ January 1695–6, and in the same year the original Jack Stanmore in Southerne's ‘Oronooko;’ Nennius in an alteration of ‘Bonduca;’ Mustapha in ‘Ibrahim XIII [should be XII], Emperour of the Turks,’ by Mrs. Pix; Peregrine in the ‘Cornish Comedy,’ and Castillio in ‘Neglected Virtue, or the Unhappy Conqueror,’ founded on the ‘Pilgrim.’ During his first season at Drury Lane his wife played Margaret, a subordinate part, in the ‘Cornish Comedy.’ At Drury Lane, with one or two migrations to the Haymarket, Mills remained forty years. His early assumptions were principally comic. He played in 1697, among other parts, the first Sir John Friendly in Vanbrugh's ‘Relapse, or Virtue in Danger,’ and Ned Stanmore in Settle's ‘World in the Moon,’ and undertook Leontius in the ‘Humorous Lieutenant.’ In 1698, he was Merope, king of Egypt, in Gildon's ‘Phaeton, or the Fatal Divorce,’ Colonel Dorange in D'Urfey's ‘Campaigners,’ Winlove in ‘Sawny the Scot’ (Lacy's alteration of the ‘Taming of the Shrew’), Artan (a devil) in Powell's ‘Imposture Defeated, or a Trick to Cheat the Devil;’ in 1699 Lovewell in Farquhar's ‘Love and a Bottle,’ in which Mrs. Mills was Trudge, and Sir Harry Wildair in Farquhar's ‘Constant Couple, or a Trip to the Jubilee.’ He also played, among other parts, Agamemnon in ‘Achilles, or Iphigenia in Aulis,’ extracted by Boyer from Racine. Following years saw him as the original Ned in Burnaby's ‘Reformed Wife’ (the cast of which is not in Genest); Arcadius in Oldmixon's ‘Grove, or Love's Paradise;’ Count Bassino in Mrs. Centlivre's ‘Perjured Husband;’ Don Duart in Cibber's ‘Love makes a Man, or the Fop's Fortune;’ Colonel Standard in Farquhar's ‘Sir Harry Wildair;’ Dugard in Farquhar's ‘Inconstant, or the Way to win him;’ Campley in Steele's ‘Funeral;’ Octavio in Cibber's ‘She would and she would not,’ 26 November 1702; Trueman in Farquhar's ‘Twin Rivals,’ 14 December 1702; Octavio in Mrs. Carroll's ‘Love's Contrivance, or Le Medecin malgre Lui’ (sic), 4 June 1703; Clerimont Senior in Steele's ‘Tender Husband,’ 23 April 1705, and many similar parts. In the autumn of 1706, a contingent of actors from Drury Lane appeared, under the direction of Swiney, at the Haymarket. Among them was Mills, who played, 26 Oct. 1706, Douglas in the ‘First Part of King Henry IV,’ and on 30 Oct. Edmund in ‘King Lear.’ He also enacted the King in the ‘Maid's Tragedy,’ Lord Morelove in the ‘Careless Husband,’ Bertram in the ‘Spanish Fryar,’ Leon in ‘Rule a Wife and have a Wife,’ the Ghost in ‘Hamlet, Volpone, Timon of Athens, Petruchio in ‘Sawny the Scot,’ Bosola in the ‘Duchess of Malfi,’ Pierre in ‘Venice Preserved,’ Octavius in ‘Julius Cæsar,’ and many other serious parts, and was the original Aimwell in Farquhar's ‘Beaux' Stratagem.’

On 15 Jan. 1708 Mills rejoined, as Horatio in ‘Hamlet,’ Drury Lane, where he remained until his death. A list of his parts, of those even which were original, would occupy columns. The chief are Prospero, 1708; Melantius in the ‘Maid's Tragedy;’ Antonio; Macbeth; Pylades, an original part, in Philips's ‘Distressed Mother,’ 17 March 1712; Julius Cæsar; Sempronius; Buckingham in ‘King Richard III;’ Falstaff; Bajazet; Titus Andronicus; Cassius; Lear; Othello; Cato; Orestes; Hamlet; and Wolsey. He was the original Belmour in ‘Jane Shore,’ 2 Feb. 1714; Fantôme in the ‘Drummer,’ 10 March 1716; Zanga in the ‘Revenge,’ 18 April 1721; Sir John Bevil in Steele's ‘Conscious Lovers,’ 7 November 1722; and Manly in Vanbrugh and Cibber's ‘Provoked Husband,’ 10 Jan. 1728. At the close of the season of 1734–5 Mills was selected as one of a committee of management at Drury Lane, but this arrangement was not carried out. His last performance (4 December 1736) was as the King in the ‘Second Part of King Henry IV.’ He was afterwards announced for Macbeth, and was seen by Davies hurrying to the theatre to play it, but was taken ill, and resigned the rôle to Quin. He died on the 17th, after an illness of twelve days, at his residence in Martlet's Court, Bow Street, and was interred in the parish church of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields on the 20th, his pall-bearers being Charles Fletewood (sic), Colley Cibber, Johnson, Quin, Griffin, and Theophilus Cibber.

The ‘London Evening Post,’ 18 December 1736, says that ‘he deservedly acquir'd a very great reputation; not only for his capacity, but also for his application and diligence in his profession,’ and for his conduct in public and private life. It adds: ‘He liv'd so generally and deservedly beloved that his loss is not only a great misfortune to the stage and his brethren there, but to the public in general, he being in all respects a very worthy and good man.’ This testimony is borne out from other sources. Victor calls him ‘the most useful actor that ever served a theatre,’ speaks in high praise of his Bajazet, and describes his person as ‘nearly approaching to the graceful; and his voice a full deep melodious tenor, which suited the characters of rage.’ His features appear, however, to have been large rather than expressive. Colley Cibber says that he owed his advancement to Wilks, to whose friendship his qualities as an ‘honest, quiet, careful man, of as few faults as excellences, commended him,’ and adds that he was advanced to a salary larger than any man actor had enjoyed during his (Cibber's) time on the stage. Mills's salary, 4l. a week, with 1l. for his wife, was in fact the same as Betterton's. Rich, in an advertisement provoked by a quarrel with his players, says that ‘the salary was paid for little or nothing.’ Steele in the ‘Tatler,’ No. 201, taxes Mills with want of sentiment, and suggests that ‘making gesture too much his study, he neglected the higher attributes of his art.’ Pierre, in which ‘he is charged with wearing a white hat,’ was his best part, in the opinion of the actors and of the public. As Corvino in ‘Volpone’ he was held to surpass Colley Cibber. His wife played few important parts. William Mills, his son, known as ‘the younger Mills,’ died of dropsy 18 August 1750, his benefit being announced for the 21st. Davies praises his Julius Cæsar, and says ‘he was in general a snip-snap speaker,’ whose eccentricities Garrick mimicked very happily in the ‘Rehearsal.’ He was an indifferent actor.

Related Research Articles

Colley Cibber was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber (1740) describes his life in a personal, anecdotal and even rambling style. He wrote 25 plays for his own company at Drury Lane, half of which were adapted from various sources, which led Robert Lowe and Alexander Pope, among others, to criticise his "miserable mutilation" of "crucified Molière [and] hapless Shakespeare".

The Relapse, or, Virtue in Danger is a Restoration comedy from 1696 written by John Vanbrugh. The play is a sequel to Colley Cibber's Love's Last Shift, or, The Fool in Fashion.

Anne Oldfield was an English actress and one of the highest paid actresses of her time.

Susanna Verbruggen, aka Susanna Mountfort, was an English actress working in London.

Barton Booth was one of the most famous dramatic actors of the first part of the 18th century.

Theophilus Cibber was an English actor, playwright, author, and son of the actor-manager Colley Cibber.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anne Bracegirdle</span> British actress (1671-1748)

Anne Bracegirdle was an English actress.

Christopher Rich (1657–1714) was a lawyer and theatrical manager in London in the late 17th and early 18th century.

Mary Kent was an English actress, whose career lasted from 1692 to 1718. Her dates of birth and death are not known. She was the wife of Drury Lane actor Thomas Kent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charlotte Charke</span> British actor and writer

Charlotte Charke was an English actress, playwright, novelist, and autobiographer. She began acting at the age of seventeen in breeches roles, and took to wearing male clothing off stage as well, performing and being publicly known as "Charles Brown" from 1741. Her later career and her writings were conducted under her own name, "Mrs. Charlotte Charke", and identified her as the daughter of Colley Cibber. After being unsuccessful in a series of jobs associated with men at the time, such as valet, sausage maker, farmer, and tavern owner, she succeeded in her career as a writer and continued her work as a novelist and memoirist until her death in 1760.

Robert Wilks was a British actor and theatrical manager who was one of the leading managers of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in its heyday of the 1710s. He was, with Colley Cibber and Thomas Doggett, one of the "triumvirate" of actor-managers that was denounced by Alexander Pope and caricatured by William Hogarth as leaders of the decline in theatrical standards and degradation of the stage's literary tradition.

Thomas Elrington (1688–1732), was an English actor.

William Pinkethman was an English comic actor, a low comedian with a droll style, and theatre manager. He was considered an imitator of Anthony Leigh.

Thomas Walker (1698–1744) was an English actor and dramatist.

The Fair Example, or the Modish Citizen is a 1703 comedy play by the English writer Richard Estcourt, originally staged at the Drury Lane Theatre. It was part of a growing trend of plays to feature a plot of an honest wife reforming her rakish husband along with Sir Harry Wildair, As You Find It, The Wife's Relief and The Modish Couple. It is a reworking of the 1693 French play Les Bourgeoises à la Mode by Florent Carton Dancourt. In 1705 a separate English adaptation of the French work John Vanbrugh's The Confederacy appeared at the rival Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket.

John Mills (c.1670–1736) was a British stage actor. A long-standing part of the Drury Lane company from 1695 until his death, he appeared in both comedies and tragedies. His wife Margaret Mills was an actress, and his son William Mills also became an actor at Drury Lane.

Mary Willis was a British stage actress of the eighteenth century.

John Thurmond was a British stage actor. To distinguish him from his son, also an actor named John, he is sometimes called John Thurmond the Elder.

Jane Lucas was an English stage actress and singer of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. From around 1693 she was a member of the United Company based at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. In 1697 she had fellow actor Colley Cibber arrested, although the reason was not clear and she remained acting in the company alongside him for some years afterwards.

Henry Norris (1665–1730?), also known as "Jubilee Dicky", an English actor.

References

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Knight, John Joseph (1894). "Mills, John (d.1736)". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography . Vol. 37. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.