THEATRICAL FAMILIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 97, 27 April 1933, Page 6

THEATRICAL FAMILIES.

Dr. J. M. Bulloch, who was introduced to the Genealogical Society in London recently as the leading authority on theatrical pedigrees of the last hundred years or so, told the members how difficult it is to trace back any of the existing stock of actors beyond two centuries. The most remarkable exception is Sir Johnston ForbesRobertson, a descendant of King Duncan, who was murdered in 1040 by Macbeth. When, therefore, Sir Johnston played tbe part of Macbeth, as he did, he was playing the part of the murderer of his own ancestor—quite a Gilbertian situation. Sometimes a theatrical family developed into other artistic lines, like Ellen Terry's son, Gordon Craig, and his son again, who is a very good artist. When Ellen Terry's sister Kate left the stage and married Mr. Arthur Lewis, one might have thought that that was good-bye for ever. But no,-the footlights are highly infectious, and her daughter is Mabel Terry. Lewis and her grandson John Gielgud. .The Grossmiths he traced back to William Grossmith, a picture-frame- maker of Reading. ETe had three boys, William Robert Grossmith, an infant prodigy, who afterwards left the stage to make artificial legs; Benjamin Grossmith, another Young Roscius, who became a missionary and was eaten up by lions; and George Grossmith, a reporter and entertainer. The son of this third son was the George Grossmith whom we had known at the Savoy, and the father of George and Weedon Grossmith,