1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Forrest, Edwin

FORREST, EDWIN (1806–1872), American actor, was born at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 9th of March 1806, of Scottish and German descent. He made his first stage appearance on the 27th of November 1820, at the Walnut Street theatre, in Home’s Douglas. In 1826 he had a great success in New York as Othello. He played at Drury Lane in the Gladiator in 1836, but his Macbeth in 1845 was hissed by the English audience, and his affront to Macready in Edinburgh shortly afterwards—when he stood up in a private box and hissed him,—was fatal to his popularity in Great Britain. His jealousy of Macready resulted in the Astor Place riot in 1849. In 1837 he had married Catherine, daughter of John Sinclair, an English singer, and his divorce suit in 1852 was a cause célèbre which hurt his reputation and soured his temper. His last appearance was as Richelieu in Boston in 1871. He died on the 12th of December 1872. He had amassed a large fortune, much of which he left by will to found a home for aged actors.

See Lawrence Barrett’s Edwin Forrest (Boston, 1881).