Grimaldi

Grimaldi, JOSEPH, the typical representative of 'the genuine droll, the grimacing, filching, irresistible clown' of the English pantomime, was born in London on 18th December 1779, the year in which Garrick died. He first appeared on the boards of Drury Lane when one month short of two years old, and in his third year he had his first engagement at Sadler's Wells Theatre, where he regularly performed (except for one season) down to the date of his retirement from the stage, prematurely worn out by sheer hard work, in 1828. He used regularly for some months every year to perform nightly at two theatres, and once he achieved the feat of acting at three different theatres on the same night. He died in London, 31st May 1837. See Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi, edited by Charles Dickens (1838).