William Creswick

William Creswick (27 December 1813 – 17 June 1888) was an English actor. A popular tragedian on the London stage, he appeared with many leading actors of his day, including William Charles Macready, Edwin Booth and Fanny Kemble and was well known for his Shakespearean and melodrama roles in Britain, the U.S. and Australia.

Early years Creswick was born near Covent Garden, London. He was intended for a mercantile career, but the death of his father when Creswick was 17 left him free to follow his theatrical vocation.

Under the name of "Master Collins" Creswick appeared in 1831 at a theatre in the East End, playing an Italian boy as a victim of "burking" (murder with the motive of selling the victim's body to anatomists). He appeared with travelling companies in Suffolk and Kent and then played leading roles in the north of England. There, in 1834, he met Elizabeth Page (1809–1876), whose stage name was Miss Paget, whom subsequently he married. His next appearance in London was at the Queen's Theatre, Tottenham Street on 16 February 1835, as Horace Meredith in Douglas William Jerrold's comedy, Schoolfellows.

Returning to touring in York, he played the leading part in Ion, continuing to tour in the provinces. In April 1839, he appeared at the Lyceum Theatre, London, first in Silver Crescent. Creswick was engaged for three years at the Haymarket Theatre, where he first appeared in July 1847 as Claude Melnotte to the Pauline of Helen Faucit in The Lady of Lyons by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. In October of that year he was the first Vivian Temple in Westland Marston's Heart and the World. He was also seen as True-worth in The Love Chase, Mordaunt in The Patrician's Daughter, Proteus in Two Gentlemen of Verona (December 1848), the Ghost in Hamlet, and Cassio in Othello. and played with Charlotte Cushman and Edwin Booth. For his farewell benefit he appeared at Drury Lane on 29 October 1885, in a scene from King Lear, as part of a miscellaneous entertainment in which others appearing included Henry Irving, Wilson Barrett, George Grossmith, Lionel Brough, William Farren Jr., John Martin Harvey and George Alexander.

Creswick died at his home in Kennington on 17 June 1888, a few days after a severe fall. He was buried at Kensal Green Cemetery on 22 June 1888. The Dictionary of National Biography said of him in 1901, The Era said of him,