ACTING FOR FORTY-FIVE YEARS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 131, 30 November 1911, Page 2

ACTING FOR FORTY-FIVE YEARS

(From Our Own Correspondent). SYDNEY, 22nd. November. A farewell matinee is being arranged for the veteran actor, G. S. Titheradge, and incidentally he is to be presented with a purse of sovereigns. Mr. Titheradge was in his day one of the idols of the Australian stage. He has 6peut in all about twenty years in this country, and has the unique record of having p.layed in Australia for fifteen years con* tinuously. Tho original of the Silver King, Aubrey Tanquerny, and other famous parts, he established himself as a rare favourite, and everybody is eorry that the time has at last come for him to say good-bye to stage life. Though he looks well enough and young enough for his age—he is now 62—he is 'not the G. S. Titheradge he used to be. He has been acting ever sinco he was 17! forty-fivo years of it. And since he was operated on in Auckland for appendicitis he has never been in robust health. With Brough ahd Boucicault he revolutionised the ' Australian stage, and although the time was not ripe then for the advanced drama in Australia, wo have to thank them for introducing some of the best plt^a that have over been produced in this part of the world. In the opinion of Mr. Titheradge himself, the Brough-Boucicault Company in ite full strength has never been ex^e'Jed anywhere else. It is not generally known that on Ist January, 1877, Mr. Titheradge was selected as herald to proclaim Queen Victoria Empress of India at the Durbar in f Calcutta, where he was at the timo playing "Hamlet" with groat success. "One rfts'ii in. his time plays many parts," but pf.t»\)]y Mr. Titheradge has played more pfjffti than any man living to-day. It ig interesting to recall that ho played with such men as Charles Koan, Ilonry Irving, and J. L. Too'o. He lira played utility, he lies plnvod the walking gentleman, he has played juvenile .business, ->nd he has played lending business; he hn« played,for nearly half a oentury, and in that time he ho« seen three entirely revolutionary styles of acting come' into voguo. Lovers of true art may be depended upon-to give this fine old actor a fitting farewell.