John Lester Wallack

At one time in the English army, then on the Dublin and London stage, he made his first stage appearance in New York in 1847 under the name of John Lester as Sir Charles Coldstream, in Boucicault's adaptation of Used Up. He was manager, using the name Wallack, of the second Wallack's theatre from 1861, and in 1882 he opened the third at 30th Street and Broadway.

His greatest successes were as Charles Surface, as Benedick, and especially as Elliot Grey in his own play Rosedale, and similar light comedy and romantic parts, for which his fascinating manners and handsome person well fitted him. He married a sister (d. 1909) of Sir John Millais. He wrote his own Memories of Fifty Years.

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.