Henry Leigh Murray

Henry Leigh Murray (1820–1870) was an English actor. Early life Murray was born in Sloane Street, London, 19 October 1820, with the surname Wilson. While a clerk in a merchant's office he made a start on amateur acting, in a small theatre in Catherine Street, Strand, his first appearance being about 1838 as Buckingham in King Richard III. Other Shakespearean parts followed, and on 2 December 1839, under Hooper, manager of the York circuit, he made his professional debut at Kingston upon Hull, playing Ludovico in Othello. On 17 September 1840, as Leigh (perhaps to avoid confusion with his manager) he appeared at the Adelphi Theatre, Edinburgh, under William Henry Murray, as Lieutenant Morton in The Middy Ashore by William Bayle Bernard. Occasionally visiting other Scottish towns, he remained in Edinburgh, at the Theatre Royal or the Adelphi, till the spring of 1845. Among the characters he played were Dr. Caius, Jan Dousterswyvel in The Lost Ship by William Thompson Townsend, Hotspur, and Mark Antony as his farewell to the Edinburgh stage. The London stage Murray's first appearance in London took place at the Princess's Theatre under J. M. Maddox on 19 April 1845, as Sir Thomas Clifford in The Hunchback by Sheridan Knowles, with Lester Wallack in the lead, Charlotte Cushman as Julia and Walter Lacy playing Lord Tinsel. He played Bassanio, Orlando, and Leonardo Gonzaga, and was the original Herman Lindorf in James Kenney's Infatuation, and Malcolm Young in James White's King of the Commons. He was also Icilius to William Charles Macready's Virginius, in the Virgilius of Knowles, and De Mauprat to his Richelieu, in the Richelieu of Bulwer Lytton. With Macready, Murray went, in the autumn of 1846, to the Surrey Theatre, where he played secondary characters in Shakespeare and Loveless in The Relapse. On the recommendation of Charles Dickens he was chosen at the Lyceum Theatre to play Alfred Heathfield in Albert Richard Smith's adaptation of The Battle of Life. At the Lyceum he remained under the Keeley and the Mathews managements. His Marquis de Volange in the Pride of the Market (James Robinson Planché) won recognition.