MACREADY, WILLIAM CHARLES ( I ), English actor, was born in London on March 3, 1793, and edu cated at Rugby. On June 7, 1810 he appeared as Romeo at Birmingham. On Sept. 16, 1816, Macready made his first London appearance at Covent Garden as Orestes in The Distressed Mother, a translation of Racine's Andromaque by Ambrose Philips. Macready's choice of characters was at first confined chiefly to the romantic drama. In 1818 he won a permanent success in Isaac Pocock's (1782-1835) adaptation of Scott's Rob Roy. He showed his capacity in high tragedy by his im personation of Richard III. at Covent Garden (Oct. 25, 1819).
Transferring his services to Drury Lane, he gradually rose in public favour, his most conspicuous success being in the title role of Sheridan Knowles's William Tell (May I 1, 1825). In 1826 he completed a successful engagement in America, and in 1828 in Paris. On Dec. 15, 183o, he appeared at Drury Lane as Werner, a powerful impersonation. In 1833 he played in Antony and Cleopatra, in Byron's Sardanapalus, and in King Lear.
After entering on the management of Covent Garden in 1837 he introduced Robert Browning's Strafford, and in the following year Bulwer's Lady of Lyons and Richelieu, the principal char acters in which were among his most effective parts. On June io, 1838, he gave a memorable performance of Henry V., for which Stanfield prepared sketches; the mounting was superintended by Bulwer, Dickens, Fors'_er, Maclise, W. J. Fox and other friends. The first production of Bulwer's Money took place under the artistic direction of Count d'Orsay Dec. 8, 1840, Macready playing the part of Alfred Evelyn. Both in his management of Covent Garden, which he resigned in 1839, and of Drury Lane, which he held from 1841 to 1843, he found little support for his efforts to elevate the stage. In 1843-44 he visited the United States; his last visit to that country, in 1849, was marred by a riot at the Astor opera house, New York, arising from the jealousy of the actor Edwin Forrest, and resulting in the death of 17 persons, who were shot by the military called out to quell the disturbance.
Macready took leave of the stage in a farewell performance of Macbeth at Drury Lane on Feb. 26, 1851. The remainder of his life was spent in happy retirement, and he died at Cheltenham on April 27, 1873. He had married, in 1823, Catherine Frances Atkins (d. 1852). Of a numerous family of children only one son and one daughter survived. In 186o he married Cecile Louise Frederica Spencer (1827-1908), by whom he had a son.
Macready's performances always displayed fine artistic per ceptions developed to a high degree of perfection by very com prehensive culture, and even his least successful personations had the interest resulting from thorough intellectual study. He belonged to the school of Kean rather than of Kemble; but, if his tastes were better disciplined and in some respects more re fined than those of Kean, his natural temperament did not permit him to give proper effect to the great tragic parts of Shakespeare, King Lear perhaps excepted, which afforded scope for his pathos and tenderness, the qualities in which he specially excelled. With the exception of a voice of good compass and capable of very varied expression, Macready had no especial physical gifts for acting, but the defects of his face and figure cannot be said to have materially affected his success.