Barry Sullivan (stage actor)
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Early life
Sullivan was born at Howard's Place, BirminghamBirmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
, Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
, England, son of Peter Sullivan and his wife, Mary née Barry. Both of his parents were natives of Cork
Cork (city)
Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, and both died when Thomas Barry was eight years old.
Sullivan was then raised by his paternal grandfather in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
. Sullivan was educated initially at the school attached to the Catholic Church in Trenchard Street and then at the Stokes Croft Endowed school. At 14 years old, Sullivan entered a lawyer's office, but, seeing William Macready
William Charles Macready
-Life:He was born in London, and educated at Rugby.It was his intention to go up to Oxford, but in 1809 the embarrassed affairs of his father, the lessee of several provincial theatres, called him to share the responsibilities of theatrical management. On 7 June 1810 he made a successful first...
in Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
and other parts, he became obsessed with idea of becoming a great actor.
Early acting career
In 1837 Sullivan joined a strolling company and at Cork was given an engagement at 15 shillingShilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
s a week as a regular member of a stock company, playing minor Shakespearian parts to Charles Kean
Charles Kean
Charles John Kean , was born at Waterford, Ireland, the son of the actor Edmund Kean.After preparatory education at Worplesdon and at Greenford, near Harrow, he was sent to Eton College, where he remained three years...
's lead. Sullivan had a good light tenor voice, occasionally sang in opera. But his ambition was to become a tragedian. In November of that year he obtained an engagement with Murray's stock company at Edinburgh, at a salary of 30 shillings a week, on the understanding that he was to play "second heavy" parts. Sullivan married Mary née Amory, daughter of an army lieutenant, on 4 July 1842 and they would have two sons and three daughters.
Sullivan soon began to play leading roles, in 1844 he took the part of Antonio
Antonio (Merchant of Venice)
Antonio is the title character in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. He is a middle-aged bachelor and merchant by trade who has his financial interests tied up in overseas shipments when the play begins. He is kind, generous, honest and confident, and is loved and revered by all the Christians...
supporting Helena Faucit
Helena Faucit
Helena Saville Faucit, Lady Martin was an English actress.-Early life:Born in London, she was the daughter of actors John Saville Faucit and Harriet Elizabeth Savill. Her parents divorced when she was a girl, and her mother married William Farren in 1825...
in The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...
and was Petruchio to her Katharina in The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...
. Sullivan then went to Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
where he met and acted with Gustavus Vaughan Brooke
Gustavus Vaughan Brooke
Gustavus Vaughan Brooke was an Irish stage actor who enjoyed success in Ireland, England and Australia.-Early life:...
; during the next seven years had engagements throughout the provinces in Scotland and England. Sullivan's reputation was growing, and on 7 February 1852 he made a successful first appearance at the Haymarket Theatre
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, as 'Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
'. He was also successful as Angiolo in Miss Vandenhoff's Woman's Heart, Evelyn in Lord Lytton
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton PC , was an English politician, poet, playwright, and novelist. He was immensely popular with the reading public and wrote a stream of bestselling dime-novels which earned him a considerable fortune...
's Money and Hardman in Lytton's Not so Bad as we Seem. Sullivan was now established as a leading actor and played principal parts during the next eight years in most of the plays of the period including Claude Melnotte in The Lady of Lyons with Helena Faucit as Pauline, and Valence in Browning's 'Colombe's Birthday' with Helena Faucit in the part of Colombe.
Towards the end of 1858 Sullivan went to the United States of America, and opened in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
on 22 November in Hamlet, followed by several others of Shakespeare's plays. Successful seasons were played at the leading cities in the United States and Sullivan returned to England 18 months later. At the St James' Theatre, London, in August 1860, Sullivan played on alternate nights, Hamlet, Richelieu, Macbeth, and Richard III, three performances being given of each play.
Career in Australia
On 25 July 1862 Sullivan arrived in Victoria (Australia)Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
aboard the City of Melbourne and was to stay for about four years, as actor and manager. Sullivan made his début as Hamlet at Theatre Royal, Melbourne on 9 August 1862.
The period between 1860 and 1870 was one of the highest standards of acting seen in Australia. Gustavus Vaughan Brooke was usually at his best in Australia, Joseph Jefferson
Joseph Jefferson
Joseph Jefferson, commonly known as Joe Jefferson , was an American actor. He was the third actor of this name in a family of actors and managers, and one of the most famous of all American comedians....
was at his best and had not yet begun to restrict the range of his characters, and Sullivan had the advantage, sometimes lacking later in England, of always having excellent support from his companies. Sullivan's parts in Australia included Hamlet, Othello, Iago, Richard III, Macbeth, Shylock, Lear, Falstaff, Falconbridge, Charles Surface, Claude Melnotte, and Richelieu. Sullivan became established as a public favourite. Sullivan played his final night at the Theatre Royal on 16 February 1866.
Sullivan completed a trip around the world in 1866, arriving in London early in September. From 1868 to 1870 he managed the Holborn theatre, where Beverley in The Gamester was one of his most powerful impersonations.
In the next 20 years Sullivan was constantly playing in London, the provinces and in the United States, he was most popular in Dublin, Cork, Liverpool and Manchester. When the memorial theatre at Stratford-on-Avon was opened, Sullivan was selected to play Benedick; Helena Faucit, emerging from retirement, played Beatrice. On the following evening Sullivan appeared as Hamlet. On 4 June 1887 while at Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
he made his last appearance on the stage, playing Richard III. Sullivan's health had been uncertain for some time and in the following year he suffered a stroke of paralysis. He was so ill in August 1888 that the last rites of his church were administered, but did not die until 3 May 1891. His wife and two sons and three daughters survived him.
Sullivan was five feet nine inches (175cms) tall and had a wiry, slight figure which allowed him to play younger parts when he was middle-aged. For a long period Sullivan was one of the finest actors of his period, though at times inclined to err on the robust side. In Melbourne Sullivan's death resulted in lengthy obituaries; he was remembered as an actor and manager of 'more than ordinary talent, combined with considerable force of character, great tenacity of purpose, untiring industry, and a dogged application to the business of his profession'.