Frank Benson
(1858-1939). English actor-manager. Born Frank Robert Benson, educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, he was a member of the OUDC at Oxford, and went on to become a noted Shakeseparean actor.
His first professional role was in Romeo and Juliet at the Lyceum in 1882. In 1883 he founded his own company, playing his first London season in 1889 and ultimately producing all but two of Shakespeare's plays. In 1886 he married Gertrude Constance Featherstonhaugh (1860–1946), an actress.
In 1921 he and his company toured South Africa under the auspices of African National Theatres (African Consolidated Theatres?), doing a series of Shakespeare plays/scenes from Shakespeare.
He was later knighted.
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Benson_(actor)
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