Walter Lacy

Walter Lacy (1809 – 13 December 1898) was an English actor. In a long career he played leading roles in London theatres.

Early life and career Lacy was born, as Walter Williams, in Bristol in 1809, the son of a coach-builder, and was educated for the medical profession. He was first seen on the stage in Edinburgh in 1829, as Count Montalban in The Honey Moon; he was playing there again in 1832, and acted also in Glasgow, Liverpool, and Manchester.

Princess's Theatre For seven years he was a member of the company at the Princess's Theatre in London, under the management of Charles Kean. He was first seen there in September 1852, as Rouble in the first performance of Dion Boucicault's The Prima Donna, and as Chateau Renaud in Boucicault's The Corsican Brothers. A reviewer wrote: "Rouble, the generous, wrong-headed millionaire, always fighting for his mistress, and always offending her, was admirably dressed and played by Mr Walter Lacy, who is a new addition to the company. His ludicrous distress, tempered in the oddest manner by a sort of cold nonchalance, made up one of those characteristic inconsistencies which stand out in the memory from the level of ordinary stage routine.... His performance of Chateau Renaud in The Corsican Brothers... was a great instance of his care and judgment in a part quite out of his usual line, and in which he had all the disadvantage of appearing after an excellent predecessor."

He died on 13 December 1898 at 13 Marine Square, Brighton, and was buried at Brompton Cemetery on 17 December.

The drama critic Joseph Knight wrote: "Lacy was a respectable light comedian, but failed as an exponent of old men.... He was a familiar figure at the Garrick Club... and was almost to the last a man of much vivacity, and of quaint, clever, unbridled, and characteristic speech."

Selected roles Baron Idenstein in The Maid of Mariendorpt by James Sheridan Knowles (1838) Ingoldsby in Master Clarke by Thomas Serle (1840) Lindsay in Glencoe by Thomas Talfourd (1840) Robert in Old Maids by James Sheridan Knowles (1841) St. Lo in Love's Sacrifice by George William Lovell (1842) Llaniston in Anne Blake by John Westland Marston (1852)