John Clayton (British actor)

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For the Australian actor, see John Clayton (Australian actor).

Semi-profile engraving of portrait of middle-aged white man with neat beard and medium-length dark hair
Clayton, 1888 engraving

John Alfred Calthrop known as John Clayton (14 February 1845 – 27 February 1888) was an English actor. After building a career in a range of parts, he became best known for his roles in the farces of Arthur Wing Pinero. With Arthur Cecil he was joint manager of the Court Theatre in London from 1883 until his death, aged 43, while on tour in Liverpool.

Life and career

Early years

John Alfred Calthrop was born at

armigerous clergymen, Army officers, and physicians. John Clayton's seven siblings included J. G. Calthrop, coroner for South Lincolnshire, Edward, a London physician, and Claude, a prize-winning painter and Royal Academician. Clayton was educated at Merchant Taylors' School in London.[2][3][4][5]

After some successful amateur experiences he made his first professional appearance on the stage on 27 February 1866, at the St James's Theatre, as George Hastings in She Stoops to Conquer. The theatrical newspaper The Era reported, "He has a good figure, and showed an easy self-possession which enabled him to acquit himself with credit". The paper added that it was doubtful if light comedy was the genre in which the debutant would make his reputation.[6]

Over the next decade Clayton appeared in a range of roles in London. At the

J. L. Toole and the Chevenix of Henry Irving.[8] At the Princess's Theatre in February 1876 he played Nigel in a revival of The King o' Scots, and in May of the same year played Jaggers at the Court Theatre in an adaptation of Great Expectations. In November 1876 he made a marked success as Mr Jormell in H. T. Craven's comedy Coals of Fire.[7]

In July 1872 Clayton played Joseph Surface in a long-running revival of

Prince of Wales's Theatre.[7]

Last years

Together with Arthur Cecil, Clayton took over the management of the Court in 1883.[11] They opened in September with a new comedy, The Millionaire by G. W. Godfrey, in which they appeared with a cast including Mrs John Wood, Marion Terry, and Mrs Beerbohm Tree.[12] After that they presented what The Pall Mall Gazette called "a series of unhealthy emotional dramas which never caught the public taste".[8] They then turned to farce, commissioning, staging and starring in Arthur W. Pinero's The Magistrate (1885), which ran for more than a year. They followed it with two more Pinero farces, The Schoolmistress (1886) and Dandy Dick (1887).[13]

The old Court theatre closed in July 1887 at the end of the run of Dandy Dick. Clayton commissioned a new building on the site from

Johnston Forbes Robertson, George Grossmith and Oscar Wilde.[7]

References and sources

References

  1. ^ https://www.oxforddnb.com/display/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-5575?rskey=PtHtSE&result=3
  2. ^ A Brief History of the Church and Parish of Gosberton in the County of Lincoln, Walter Jenkinson Kaye, jun., Elliot Stock (London), 1897, pp. 111-114
  3. ^ Lincolnshire Pedigrees, supplement, Arthur S. Larken, ed. Arthur R. Maddison, The Harleian Society, 1906, pp. 1173-1176
  4. ^ https://www.chrisbeetles.com/artists/calthrop-claude-andrew-1845-1893.html
  5. ^ Notes on the families of Calthorpe & Calthrop in the counties of Norfolk and Lincolnshire and elsewhere, 3rd edition, C. W. Carr-Calthrop, F. A. Perry (London), 1933, pp. 122-124
  6. ^ "The London Theatres", The Era, 4 March 1866, p. 11
  7. ^ a b c d e "Death of Mr John Clayton", The Era, 3 March 1888, p. 8
  8. ^ a b c d The Death of Mr John Clayton", The Pall Mall Gazette, 28 February 1888, p. 11
  9. ^ Notes on the families of Calthorpe & Calthrop in the counties of Norfolk and Lincolnshire and elsewhere, 3rd edition, C. W. Carr-Calthrop, F. A. Perry (London), 1933, p. 123
  10. ^ https://archives.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/calthrop-dion-william-palgrave-clayton-1878-1937
  11. ^ "Theatrical Gossip", The Era, 28 July 1883, p. 8
  12. ^ "'The Millionaire' at The Court", The Era, 29 September 1883, p. 5
  13. ^ Gaye, pp. 1530, 1534 and 1537
  14. ^ "Provincial Theatricals", The Era, 11 February 1888, p. 17; and "Alexandra Theatre", The Liverpool Mercury, 21 February 1888, p. 5
  15. ^ "Obituary", The Times, 28 February 1888, p. 5

Sources

  • Gaye, Freda, ed. (1967). Who's Who in the Theatre (fourteenth ed.). London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons.
    OCLC 5997224
    .
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