Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree was an English actor and theatre manager.
Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre, winning praise for adventurous programming and lavish productions, and starring in many of its productions. In 1899, he helped fund the rebuilding, and became manager, of His Majesty's Theatre. Again, he promoted a mix of Shakespeare and classic plays with new works and adaptations of popular novels, giving them spectacular productions in this large house, and often playing leading roles. His wife, actress Helen Maud Holt, often played opposite him and assisted him with management of the theatres.
Although Tree was regarded as a versatile and skilled actor, particularly in character roles, by his later years, his technique was seen as mannered and old fashioned. He founded the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1904 and was knighted, for his contributions to theatre, in 1909. His famous family includes his siblings, explorer Julius Beerbohm, author Constance Beerbohm and half-brother caricaturist Max Beerbohm. His daughters were Viola, an actress, Felicity and Iris, a poet; and his illegitimate children included film director Carol Reed. A grandson was the actor Oliver Reed.
Wikipedia
“Sirs, I have tested your machine. It adds a new terror to life and makes death a long-felt want.”
Page 183
His reply to a gramophone company who had asked for a testimonial.
Beerbohm Tree (1956)
“Ladies, just a little more virginity, if you don't mind.”
Remembered by Alexander Woollcott in his Shouts and Murmurs (1922) p. 87.
To actresses playing the ladies-in-waiting in a production of Henry VIII, "peering at them plaintively through his monocle".
“A man never knows what a fool he is until he hears himself imitated by one.”
Quoted by Max Beerbohm in Hebert Beerbohm Tree: Some Memories of Him and of His Art Collected by Max Beerbohm http://books.google.com/books?id=wM08AAAAIAAJ&q="A+man+never+knows+what+a+fool+he+is+until+he+hears+himself+imitated+by+one"&pg=PA312#v=onepage (1920).
“People are too apt to treat God as if he were a minor royalty.”
"The Importance of Humour in Tragedy: Presidential Address Delivered at the Birmingham Midland Institute, 1915", Nothing Matters, and Other Stories (1917) p. 207.
“My poor fellow, why not carry a watch?”
Page 110.
"To a man who was staggering in the street under the weight of a grandfather clock".
Beerbohm Tree (1956)
George Bernard Shaw Selected Prose (1952) p. 521.
