Macready, WILLIAM CHARLES, actor, was the son of William McCready (so he spelt his name), actor and provincial manager. His mother, whose maiden name was Birch, was an actress. While the elder Macready was fulfilling an engagement at Covent Garden, William Charles was born in Mary Street, Euston Road, on 3d March 1793. In 1795 his father became manager of the Birmingham Theatre, and Macready was sent to Rugby, where he entered in 1803. He was intended for the bar; but his father's managerial speculations proving unsuccessful, he was forced to adopt the stage as his profession. He made his first appearance at Birmingham on 7th June 1810, playing Romeo, and for six years remained in the provinces. On 16th September 1816 he made his London début, playing Orestes (Distrest Mother) at Covent Garden. His reception by the critics and public was friendly; but he was for a long time very unfortunate in being cast for unsympathetic parts, one of the few exceptions being Rob Roy, in which he made a great hit, and of which he was the original actor in London. For many years he fought a fairly equal fight against Kean, Young, and Charles Kemble; but it was not till 1837 that he really took his position as leading English actor. On 30th September 1837 he inaugurated his famous Covent Garden management, during which he did much good service to the English stage. Surrounded by such players as Miss Faucit, Samuel Phelps, James Anderson, Mr and Mrs Vandenhoff, Miss Priscilla Horton, and Mrs Warner, he produced Shakespeare's plays in worthy fashion, and did much to elevate and reform the theatre. For two seasons he managed Covent Garden, but abruptly gave it up; then, after two years' interval, took Drury Lane, which he managed from December 1841 to June 1843. After this time he never settled in London, but played in the provinces, in Paris, and in America. His last visit to the United States was marked by the terrible riots which arose out of the ill-feeling borne by the American actor Forrest to Macready. A riotous mob trying to break into the Astor Place Theatre for the purpose of maltreating Macready was fired upon by the military, and some twenty lives were lost (10th May 1849). On 26th February 1851 Macready took his farewell of the stage, at Drury Lane, in his great part of Macbeth, and passed his remaining years in placid retirement at Sherborne, Dorsetshire, and at Cheltenham, where he died on 27th April 1873. As an actor Macready endeavoured to combine the dignity of the Kembles with the naturalness of Kean. If not of the first rank, he was yet an actor of great power, and specially distinguished himself in Macbeth, Lear, Iago, King John, Cassius, and Henry IV. In Virginius, Werner, Richelieu, and Claude Melnotte he was also greatly successful.
See Macready's Reminiscences and Diaries (1875); Lady Pollock's Macready as I knew Him (2d ed. 1885); and a memoir by William Archer ('Eminent Actors' series, 1890).