Sir John Martin-Harvey
(1863-1944), Actor and theatre managerSitter in 32 portraits
Actor and theatre manager. A chance visit to a London theatre while he was apprenticed to his father's shipwright business persuaded Harvey to train as an actor. He joined Irving's Lyceum Theatre in 1882 and stayed for fourteen years. After a period as a freelance actor, he ventured into management in February 1899 with The Only Way, an adaptation of Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities that proved a phenomenal success, registering over 5000 performances over forty years and guaranteeing Harvey's financial security. Although costumed romance and melodrama were the bedrock of Harvey's repertoire, he also produced Shakespeare, a revolutionary production of Oedipus Rex, and contemporary plays by writers such as Maeterlinck.
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