George Vining as 'Mercutio'

A carte-de-visite portrait of the actor George Vining (1824-1875), seen here as Mercutio in a production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

According to the DNB (1900), his most popular creation was the detective Badger in Boucicault’s Streets of London (1863), an adaptation of the author’s earlier, American success The Poor of New York. On 2 July 1867 he played an original part in The Huguenot Captain by Watts Phillips, and on 12 August 1868 he scored another success in Boucicault's After Dark. He was the first Bullhead, to Charles Mathews's Gentleman Jack, in Escaped from Portland (9 October1869). After his retirement from management he played Count Fosco in the first production of Wilkie Collins's Woman in White (9 October 1871) at the Olympic Theatre. He died at Reading on 17 December 1875.

Photographed by the Southwell Brothers of London.

[From an album compiled by the actor and author Charles Daly.]