William Blakeley

William Blakeley (c. 1830 – 8 December 1897) was an English actor whose career spanned several decades on both the London and American stages. He began performing as an amateur at the Gough Street theatre and the Soho theatre, the latter later known as the Royalty. His first engagement as a paid performer came at the Theatre Royal, Dublin, under Sir William Don. He subsequently took on Polonius and other roles at the Amphitheatre, Liverpool, before joining Sothern on tour, where he played Asa Trenchard opposite Sothern's Lord Dundreary in Our American Cousin.

Blakeley made his London debut on 21 December 1867 at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, Tottenham Street, as Sir Abel Hotspur in Boucicault's How She Loves Him, a role he had first performed at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, Liverpool, on 7 December 1863. On 15 February 1868, he created the role of Bodmin Todder in Play and appeared as John Chodd Senior in a revival of Society. Later that year, on 12 December, he played Mr. Tweedie in Yates's Tame Cats. At the Olympic Theatre on 1 May 1871, he took the role of Simeon Cole in Byron's Daisy Farm.

The Criterion Theatre became the venue most closely associated with Blakeley's career. Following a trip to America with Sothern in 1880, he appeared at the Criterion on 23 July 1881 as Jeremiah Deeds in Flats in Four Stories, adapted by G. R. Sims. Among the original characters he created there were Talbot in Gilbert's Foggerty's Fairy on 15 December 1881, Brummies in H. J. Byron's Fourteen Days on 4 March 1882, and Ferdinand Pettigrew in Albery's Featherbrain on 23 June 1884. He also played Babblebrook in A Lesson in Love and appeared in comic roles in revivals of Brighton, Betsy, Pink Dominos, and Still Waters Run Deep at the same theatre.

Blakeley's Broadway appearances took place between 1882 and 1889, during which he was seen in Brighton, David Garrick, The Great Divorce Case, and The Candidate. His role of Barnabas Goodeve in The Candidate, which opened on 29 November, was among the original characters he created during this period of his career.

At Daly's Theatre, Blakeley appeared as Smoggins in An Artist's Model on 2 February 1895, as Duckworth Crabbe in The Chili Widow on 7 September 1895, and as Commodore Van Gütt in The New Baby on 28 April 1896. His final London appearance came at the Criterion on 17 July 1897, when he played Thomas Tyndal in Four Little Girls by Walter Stokes Craven. Blakeley was recognized both as a skilled maker of comic faces and as a genuine comedian, with his portrayals of self-importance, assumed dignity, and scandalized propriety considered distinctive. He was also accepted in the role of Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer. Blakeley died on 8 December 1897 at Criterion House, Clovelly Terrace, Walham, London, and was buried in Fulham Cemetery.