ABBOT, WILLIAM (1798-1843), English actor, was born in Chelsea, and made his first appearance on the stage at Bath in 1806, and his first London appearance in 1808. He created the parts of Appius Claudius in Sheridan Knowles's Virginius (1820) and of Modus in his Hunchback (1832). In 1827 he organized the company, including Macready and Miss Smithson, which acted Shakespeare in Paris. Two of Abbot's melodramas, The Youthful Days of Frederick the Great (1817) and Swedish Patriotism (1819), were produced at Covent Garden. He died in poverty at Baltimore, Maryland.