Johnston Forbes-Robertson

Born 16 January 1853
London, England
Died 6 November 1937 (aged 84)
St. Margaret's Bay, Dover, Kent, England
Occupation actor
Years active 1874–1915
Spouse Gertrude Elliott
Children Maxine Miles;
Jean Forbes-Robertson;
Chloe Forbes-Robertson;
Diana Forbes-Robertson

Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson (16 January 1853 – 6 November 1937) was an English actor and theatre manager and husband of the actress Gertrude Elliott. Considered by some the finest Hamlet of the Victorian era and one of the finest actors of his time, he disliked acting and believed throughout his career that he was temperamentally unsuited to it.

Born in London, he was the eldest of the eleven children of John Forbes-Robertson, a theatre critic and journalist from Aberdeen, and his wife Frances. One of his sisters, Frances (1866–1956), and two of his brothers, Ian Forbes-Robertson (1859–1936), Norman Forbes-Robertson (1858–1932) also became actors, with another brother, Eric Forbes-Robertson (1865–1935), becoming a notable artist. Through his wife Gertrude Elliott, he was the brother-in-law of the actress Maxine Elliott, the uncle of Roy Harrod the economist, and was also the great-uncle of actress Meriel Forbes (granddaughter of his brother Norman), who married the actor Ralph Richardson.

He was educated at Charterhouse. Originally intending to become an artist, he trained for three years at the Royal Academy. He began a theatrical career, out of a desire to be self-supporting, when the dramatist William Gorman Wills, who had seen him in private theatricals, offered him a role in his play Mary Queen of Scots.