Edward Compton

Edward Compton (14 January 1854 – 16 July 1918) was an actor and actor-manager of the Victorian era who enjoyed considerable success in touring the English provinces with plays by Shakespeare, Sheridan and Goldsmith but who met with failure while trying to break into the West End theatre.

Early career Born in 1854 at 16 Charing Cross Road in London as Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie, he was the fifth of nine children born to Charles Mackenzie, an actor known as Henry Compton (1805–1877), and Emmeline Catherine née Montague (1823–1911). Edward Compton was educated at the private academy of Revd J. Gaitskell. His first stage appearance was in 1873 at the New Theatre Royal in Bristol as Long Ned in F. Boyle's Old London. In 1874 he joined the Francis Fairlie Touring Company for who he appeared in East Lynne by Alfred Kempe, in Progress by C. R. Munro and The School for Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, followed by seasons in Bristol, Glasgow, Kilmarnock, Liverpool and Birmingham. His first role in London was at his father's benefit at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in March 1877 in which he played Alfred Evelyn in Money by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, going on to appear in his father's second benefit in Manchester later in the same month. This was followed by appearances with the companies of Henry James Byron and Mrs Hermann Vezin. Charles Surface in The School for Scandal and as Claude Melnotte in The Lady of Lyons by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. On 23 April 1879 he played Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing at the dedication of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon. Later that year with his brother Charles he published the Memoir of Henry Compton. and had five children: the novelist Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie (1883–1972) and the actors Frank Compton (1885–1964), Viola Compton (1886–1971), Ellen Compton (1891–1970), and Fay Compton (1894–1978).

Among other roles Compton played Malvolio in Twelfth Night (1881), Dr. Pangloss in The Heir At Law (1881), Mawworm in Isaac Bickerstaffe's The Hypocrite (1881), Jack Rover in Wild Oats (1882), Tony Lumpkin in She Stoops to Conquer (1882), Charles Surface in The School For Scandal (1883), Dromio of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors (1883) and Bob Acres in The Rivals (1883).

By 1891 the Compton Comedy Company had been touring the UK for ten years and had given thousands of performances of such plays as Sheridan's The Rivals and The School for Scandal, The Road to Ruin by Thomas Holcroft, David Garrick by T. W. Robertson and She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith. Compton decided that the time was right to take his company to London, and he wrote to Henry James asking him to adapt his novel The American into a play for the stage - to which James agreed. Performed by the Compton Comedy Company, the play premièred in January 1891 in Southport with Compton playing Christopher Newman, the American, and was a financial and critical success.

Despite the attendance of The Prince of Wales at a performance and some reworking of the production The American closed on 4 December 1891 after only 69 performances and causing a great financial loss. Compton's son Sir Compton Mackenzie later described his father's reaction: He realised that it was not his destiny to be a leading London actor-manager and went back to the provinces where he was so much loved, and where in a white wig instead of a toupee and with patches instead of a false moustache he would be making much more money and doing far more for British drama than by trying to establish himself in London.

Later years

After this failure the Compton Comedy Company returned to touring the provinces and Edward Compton together with Milton Bode bought several theatres in the provinces and suburbs of London. By August 1915 Compton was preparing to take his company back to London to appear at the Shaftesbury Theatre but he became ill and plans were put on hold. He died of throat cancer at his home, 54 Avonmore Road in West Kensington in London, on 16 July 1918 and was buried in Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey. The Compton Comedy Company continued to tour the United Kingdom until 26 July 1923 when it was disbanded due to the high cost of maintaining it.