West Digges
English actor
West Digges (1720-1786) was an English actor who made his first stage appearance in Dublin in 1749 as Jaffier in Venice Preserv'd; and both there and in Edinburgh until 1764 he acted in many tragic roles with success. He was the original "young Norval" in John Home's Douglas (1756). His first London appearance was as Cato at the Haymarket Theatre in 1777, and he afterwards played King Lear, Macbeth, Shylock and Wolsey.
He was a friend and associate of James Boswell who much admired him.
He created the title role in the opera The Baron Kinkvervankotsdorsprakingatchdern. In 1781 he returned to Dublin and retired in 1784.
The actress Fanny Fleming was said to be a granddaughter.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “West Digges”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- West Diggs (Digges) as Sir John Brute in "The Provoked Wife" - DPLA - b4e45a62f2851e09941febdd55fc9a33.jpg by Unknown author, Public domain
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