Conrad Theodore Knowles

Conrad Theodore Knowles (1810 – 19 May 1844), born in England, was an Australian actor and theatre manager. With no formal training, he became a versatile and accomplished actor, and his roles included several Shakespearian parts; he was the first actor in the country to play Hamlet and King Lear.

Early years in Australia Knowles was born in England in 1810. His father John Knowles, a Wesleyan minister, "was induced to let his son indulge his natural disposition for travel and adventure"; Knowles was an early emigrant to the Swan River Colony (later Perth). The colony experienced difficulties and in April 1830 he arrived in Hobart Town, where he was a tutor of drawing and languages.

He later moved to Sydney, where distant relatives lived. The Theatre Royal opened in 1832 and, although he had no theatrical experience, he became an actor at the theatre. He was unwilling to lose the friendship of his Wesleyan relatives, and at first appeared as Mr Cooper, but eventually he left the Methodist church. From the second season he used his own name; he was acting manager, and played melodramatic, tragic and comic roles. He played major Shakespearian roles; he was Australia's first Hamlet and King Lear.

Final year Later that year Knowles, in Melbourne, opened a temporary 500-seat theatre, The Pavilion, in Bourke Street. On 4 September he produced Othello, the first Shakespeare play performed in the colony.

Knowles died on 19 May 1844, after a short illness. An obituary commented that since he began his acting career, "he has laboured... to advance the interests of the profession, of which he was so distinguished an ornament, with credit to himself and gratification to the play-going public, who have now to regret the loss of a sterling actor, and an accomplished but unfortunate gentleman."