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Colley Cibber was an English actor-manager, playwright and Poet Laureate. His colourful memoir 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".
Mary Kent was an English actress, whose career lasted from 1692 to 1718, and the wife of Drury Lane actor Thomas Kent. Her dates of birth and death are not known. Mary Kent appeared in many playbills from 1692 onwards in London, playing minor parts in the United Company until the company's tumultuous breakup in 1695. She and her husband remained with the depleted parent troupe when the senior actors walked out to set up their own cooperative company, and during the consequent brief actor shortage at Drury Lane, she played more important parts, notably Flareit in Colley Cibber's Love's Last Shift and young Tom Fashion in John Vanbrugh's The Relapse in 1697. This role came at a time when it was common for boys to be portrayed by actresses and her casting was described as perhaps "an attempt to defuse the homosexual suggestions in his relationship with Coupler."
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.
Christopher Bullock (1690–1722) was a British stage actor and dramatist.
Theophilus Keene (1680–1718) was an Anglo-Irish stage actor and theatre manager.
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.
John Roberts was a British stage actor of the eighteenth century.
Thomas Simpson was an English stage actor of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. His surname is sometimes written as Sympson.
Mary Powell was an English stage actor of the seventeenth century and early eighteenth century.
Benjamin Husband was a British stage actor of the eighteenth century. His surname is sometimes written as Husbands.
Joseph Williams was an English stage actor of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century.
Charles Williams (1693–1731) was a British stage actor.
Mary Willis was a British stage actress of the eighteenth century.
Richard Cross was a British stage actor.
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.
John Wiltshire was an English stage actor of the Restoration Era. He joined the King's Company in 1675, before transferring to the rival Duke's Company in 1679 possibly as a replacement for Matthew Medbourne who was arrested in the Popish Plot and subsequently died in Newgate. From 1682 until his death he was part of the merged United Company. According to the autobiography of Colley Cibber he subsequently joined the English Army as captain and was killed in action fighting with William III's forces in Flanders during the Nine Years' War. His surname is also sometimes spelled as Wilshire.
Joseph Harris (c.1650–1715) was an English stage actor and playwright. His earliest known performance was in the United Company's The Bloody Brother in 1685. Earlier mentions an actor named Harris are likely to refer to an earlier lesser-known actor William Harris or even the celebrated Restoration performer Henry Harris. He remained with the United Company until 1695 when he joined Thomas Betterton's breakaway company at the Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre. He acted there until around 1705, although some reports have him still acting as late as 1715.
Henry Harris was an English stage actor and theatre manager. Initially a painter he was a founder member of the new Duke's Company in 1660 following the Restoration which established itself at the old Salisbury Court Theatre before moving to the new Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre shortly afterwards. Due to his background Harris may have been a set designer and painter during his early years with the company. However, by 1661 he was acting, and his first recorded role was in William Davenant's The Siege of Rhodes that summer. He quickly established himself as the second actor in the troupe after Thomas Betterton.
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.
