BENSON, SIR FRANK (ROBERT) Eng lish actor, son of William Benson of A1resford, Hants, was born on Nov. 4, 1858. While at New college he produced the first Oxford Greek play, the Agamemnon. He made his first pro fessional appearance at the Lyceum, under Irving, in Romeo and Juliet, as Paris, in 1882. In the next year he went into managership with a company of his own, taken over from Walter Bentley. In 1886 he married Gertrude Constance Featherston haugh, who acted in his company and continued to play leading parts with him. Besides appearing in London he toured regularly in Shakespeare, and went to Canada (ii) and South Africa (1921). His finest parts were Hamlet, Coriolanus, Richard II., Lear, and Petruchio. By his organization of a regular touring company, and by his foundation of a dramatic school of acting in 1901, Benson exercised a most important influence on the con temporary stage. From the first he devoted himself largely to the production of Shakespeare's plays. After 1888 he organized 26 of the annual Stratford-on-Avon Shakespearian Festivals. He was knighted in 1916.