Robert Baddeley (actor)
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Robert Baddeley (1733–1794) was an English actor.[1] His parentage is unknown, as is his place of birth, though the latter may have been London. He worked as a cook and valet, and one of his employers was the actor-manager Samuel Foote, who may have inspired him to take to the stage. He spent three years following another employer on a Grand Tour, which helped him to develop the facility with languages and accents which was to be a hallmark of his career.
In 1760 Baddeley made his stage debut in one of Foote's productions at the
Baddeley's wife, Sophia Baddeley, exceeded him in fame.[1] The couple had a troubled relationship. At one point Baddeley insisted that Sophia stop living with one Doctor Hayes, and in the financial negotiations that followed Baddeley ended up fighting a duel with David Garrick's brother and business manager George, who had disputed his version of events. No one was injured and a separation was agreed.
Baddeley continued acting until just before his death. A sufferer of epilepsy, he was taken ill on 19 November 1794 while preparing to play Moses in The School for Scandal[3] and he died the following day. He bequeathed £3 per annum to provide wine and cake in the green room of Drury Lane Theatre on Twelfth Night.[4] The ceremony of the "Baddeley Cake" has remained a regular institution.[1]
The 20th-century actress sisters Angela Baddeley and Hermione Baddeley are no relations.[5]
Selected roles
- Canton in The Clandestine Marriage by George Colman the Elder (1766)
- Robert in The School for Rakes by Elizabeth Griffith (1769)
- Stockwell in The West Indian by Richard Cumberland (1771)
- Doctor Druid in The Fashionable Lover by Richard Cumberland (1772)
- La Poudre in The Maid of Kent by Francis Godolphin Waldron (1773)
- Dibble in The Choleric Man by Richard Cumberland (1774)
- Rudely in The Double Deception by Elizabeth Richardson (1779)
- Secondhand in The School for Vanity by Samuel Jackson Pratt (1783)
- Katzenbuckel in The Disbanded Officer by James Johnstone (1786)
- Chignon in The Heiress by John Burgoyne (1786)
- The Resident in The Sword of Peace by Mariana Starke (1788)
- Old Spriggins in The Family Party by George Colman the Younger (1790)
- Sir Solomon Sapient in The Impostors by Richard Cumberland (1789)
- Corporal in The Battle of Hexham by George Colman the Younger (1790)
- Mr. Blackman in Next Door Neighbours by Elizabeth Inchbald (1791)
- Old Crotchet in The Box-Lobby Challenge by Richard Cumberland (1794)
Notes
- ^ a b c Ewbank, Anne (5 January 2019). "How £100 Bought an Obscure British Actor 224 Years of Cake and Fame". Gastro Obscura. Atlas Obscura. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
- ^ Broadbent, R. J. (1908). Annals of the Liverpool Stage, p. 41. Edward Howell.
- ^ Hickman, Katie (2003). Courtesans: Money, Sex and Fame in the Nineteenth Century, p. 35. HarperCollins Publishers.
- ^ Genest, John (1832). Some Account of the English Stage: From the Restoration in 1660 to 1830, Vol. VII, pp. 193–94. H. E. Carrington.
- ^ Angela and Hermione Baddeley are descendants of Sir Henry Clinton and his partner, Mary Baddeley, née O'Callaghan, through their son William Clinton-Baddeley (see e.g. Will of Sir Henry Clinton of Corpham, Shropshire, National Archives, PROB 11/1271/91) and no relations to Robert Baddeley.
References
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
External links
Media related to Robert Baddeley at Wikimedia Commons