David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of European theatrical practice throughout the 18th century, and was a pupil and friend of Samuel Johnson. He appeared in several amateur theatricals, and with his appearance in the title role of Shakespeare's Richard III, audiences and managers began to take notice.
Portrait by Thomas Gainsborough, 1770
Have mercy, Jesu! Soft! I did but dream. O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me! – Shakespeare's Richard III Act V, Sc. 3. David Garrick in 1745 as Richard III just before the battle of Bosworth Field, his sleep having been haunted by the ghosts of those he has murdered, wakes to the realization that he is alone in the world and death is imminent. Painting by the English painter William Hogarth (which is on display at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool).
Joshua Reynolds, David Garrick Between Tragedy and Comedy, 1760–61 at Waddesdon Manor
Garrick (right) as Abel Drugger in Jonson's The Alchemist painted by Johann Zoffany
An actor-manager is a leading actor who sets up their own permanent theatrical company and manages the business, sometimes taking over a theatre to perform select plays in which they usually star. It is a method of theatrical production used consistently since the 16th century, particularly common in 19th-century Britain and the United States.
Actor-manager Henry Irving
Henry Irving in The Bells, 1874
