Henry Baynton

Who was Henry Baynton?

Henry Baynton was a British Shakespearean actor and actor-manager of the early 20th century.

Baynton made his first theatrical appearance in 1910, commencing a career in which he played in most of the works of William Shakespeare. He joined the company of Oscar Asche in 1911, and later that year joined the company of Frank Benson, for whom he appeared as Hamlet and as Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 1916 Baynton appeared at the Stratford Festival, and in 1917 he joined the theatrical company of H.B. Irving at the Savoy Theatre, playing Laertes to Irving's Hamlet.

In 1917 Baynton formed his own theatrical company, with whom he played Orlando in As You Like It, Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, Brutus in Julius Caesar, the title roles in Henry V, Richard III, Hamlet, King Lear and Othello, Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream Falstaff, and Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew. He played the Burgomaster Mathias in The Bells at the Savoy Theatre in 1924. Baynton's performance was not favourably received by the critics, who compared him adversely to Henry Irving, who had made the role his own.