Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Neville, Henry
NEVILLE, HENRY (1837–1910), actor, whose full name was Thomas Henry Gartside Neville, born at Manchester on 20 June 1837, was son of John Neville (1787–1874), manager of the Queen's Theatre, Spring Gardens, and of his second wife, Marianne, daughter of Capt. Gartside of Woodbrow, Saddleworth, Lancashire. He was the twentieth child of a twentieth child, both being the issue of a second marriage. A brother George was also an actor.
At three he was brought on the stage in his father's arms as the child in 'Pizarro'; but he forfeited all help from his father by refusing to join the army like other members of the family. In 1857, at Preston, he took to the stage as a profession. When John Vandenhoff bade leave to the stage on 29 Oct. 1858, at the Theatre Royal, Liverpool, Neville played Cromwell to the tragedian's Cardinal Wolsey in 'King Henry VIII,' act iii. After a stern novitiate in the north of England and in Scotland, he first appeared in London at the Lyceum Theatre, under Madame Celeste, on 8 Oct. 1860, as Percy Ardent in a revival of Boucicault's 'The Irish Heiress.' Prof. Henry Morley hailed him as 'a new actor of real mark.' After other provincial engagements he spent four years at the Olympic under Robson and Emden (1862-6), and the experience proved the turning-point in his career. On 2 May 1863 he was the original Bob Brierley in Tom Taylor's 'The Ticket of Leave Man,' a character in which he made the success of his life. He played it in all some 2000 times. In May 1864, while Tom Taylor's play was still rurming, Neville also appeared as Petruchio in the afterpiece of 'Catherine and Petruchio,' and was highly praised for his speaking of blank verse. On 27 Oct. 1866 he was the first professional exponent of Richard Wardour in Wilkie Collins's 'The Frozen Deep,' a character originally performed by Charles Dickens.
Neville's impassioned and romantic style of acting, which gave a character to the Olympic productions, contrasted with the over-charged, highly coloured style then current at the Adelphi. But early in 1867 he migrated to the Adelphi, where, on 16 March, he was the original Job Armroyd in Watts Phillips's 'Lost in London,' and on 1 June the original Farmer Allen in Charles Reade's version of Tennyson's 'Dora.' On 31 Aug., on Miss Kate Terry's farewell, he played Romeo to her Juliet, and on 26 Dec. he was the original George Vendale in Dickens and Collins's 'No Thoroughfare.' On 7 Nov. 1868 'The Yellow Passport,' Neville's own version of Victor Hugo's 'Les Misérables,' was produced at the Olympic vith himself as Jean Valjean. At the Gaiety on 19 July 1869 he played an important role in Gilbert's first comedy, 'An Old Score,' and at the Adelphi in June 1870 he originated the leading character of the industrious Sheffield mechanic in Charles Reade's 'Put Yourself in his Place.'
From 1873 to 1879 Neville was lessee and manager of the Olympic Theatre. After experiencing failure with Byron's comedy 'Sour Grapes' (4 Nov. 1873) and Mortimer's 'The School for Intrigue ' (1 Dec.) he scored success through his acting of Lord Clancarty in Tom Taylor's 'Lady Clancarty' (March 1874), and with Oxenford's 'The Two Orphans' (14 Sept.), which enjoyed a great vogue and was revived at the end of his tenancy. Other of his original parts which were popular were the badly drawn title-part in Wills's 'Buckingham ' (4 Dec. 1875), the hunchback in his own version of Coppếe's 'The Violin-maker of Cremona' (2 July 1877), Franklin Blake in Wilkie Collins's 'The Moonstone' (22 Sept.), and Jeffrey Rollestone in Gilbert's 'The Ne'er-do-Weel' (2 March 1878). Subsequently he played at the Adelphi for two years, opening there on 27 Feb. 1879 as Perrinet Leclerc in Clement Scott and E. Mavriel's 'The Crimson Cross,' and acting to advantage on 7 Feb. 1880 St. Cyr in Wills's new drama, 'Ninon.' In a successful revival of 'The School for Scandal' at the Vaudeville, on 4 Feb. 1882, he proved a popular, if somewhat heavy, Charles Surface. A little later he was supporting Madame Modjeska in the provinces as the Earl of Leicester in Wingfield's 'Mary Stuart' and as Jaques in 'As You Like It.' On 25 Oct. 1884 he was the original George Kingsmill in Mr. Henry Arthur Jones's 'Saints and Sinners' at the Vaudeville.
Thenceforth Neville chiefly confined himself to romantic heroes in melodrama. On 12 Sept. 1885 he was the original Captain Temple in Pettitt and Harris's 'Human Nature' at Drury Lane, and after playing in many like pieces he went to America in 1890 with Sir Augustus Harris's company to sustain that character. He opened at the Boston Theatre, Boston, and appeared as Captain Temple for 200 nights, the play then being re-named 'The Soudan.' On his return to London he appeared at the Princess's on 11 Feb. 1892 as Jack Holt in 'The Great Metropolis,' a nautical melodrama, of which he was part author. During the succeeding fourteen years he continued with occasional interruptions to originate prominent characters in the autumn melodramas at Drury Lane. His last appearance on the stage was at His Majesty's at a matinee on 29 April 1910, when he played Sir Oliver in a scene from 'The School for Scandal.'
Neville's art reflected his buoyant, breezy nature and his generous mind. A romantic actor of the old flamboyant school, he succeeded in prolonging his popularity by an adroit compromise with latter-day conditions. He believed that the principles of acting could be taught, and in 1878 established a dramatic studio in Oxford Street, in whose fortunes he continued for many years to take a vivid interest. In 1875 he published a pamphlet giving the substance of a lecture on 'The Stage, its Past and Present in Relation to Fine Art.'
Although he lived for the theatre, Neville was a man of varied accomplishments. He painted, carved, and modelled with taste, took a keen interest in sport, was a volunteer and crack rifle shot, and once placed the St. George's Vase to the credit of his corps. He was also a man of sound business capacity, and long conducted the George Hotel at Reading.
Neville died at the Esplanade, Seaford, Sussex, on 19 June 1910, from heart failure as the result of an accident, and was buried at Denshaw, Saddleworth, Lancashire. By his marriage with Henrietta Waddell, a non-professional, he left four sons, none of them on the stage. The gross value of his estate was estimated at 18,671l. (see his will in Evening Standard of 23 Nov. 1910). A full-length portrait in oils of him as Count Almaviva in Mortimer's 'The School for Intrigue' (1874), by J. Walton, is in the Garrick Club.
[Pascoe's Dramatic List; Prof. Henry Morley's Journal of a London Playgoer; R. J. Broadbent's Annals of the Liverpool Stage; The Era Almanack, 1887, p. 36; Dutton Cook's Nights at the Play; Mowbray Morris's Essays in Theatrical Criticism; Joseph Knight's Theatrical Notes; The Green Room Book, 1909; Daily Telegraph, 20 June 1910; private information and personal research.]