1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Johnson, Benjamin

JOHNSON, BENJAMIN (c. 1665–1742), English actor, was first a scene painter, then acted in the provinces, and appeared in London in 1695 at Drury Lane after Betterton’s defection. He was the original Captain Driver in Oronooko (1696), Captain Fireball in Farquhar’s Sir Harry Wildair (1701), Sable in Steele’s Funeral (1702), &c.; as the First Gravedigger in Hamlet and in several characters in the plays of Ben Jonson he was particularly good. He succeeded, also, to Thomas Doggett’s rôles.