George Honey

George Honey (25 May 1822 – 28 May 1880) was a British actor, comedian and singer. He was in the original productions of Caste by T. W. Robertson, and Engaged by W. S. Gilbert.

His acting career began in November 1848 at the Princess's Theatre, London, in the role of Pan in Midas. He was not regarded as a comedian in his early career, but as a singer; he joined the Pyne & Harrison Opera Company and appeared in several operas. One of these was The Rose of Castille, in which he appeared in the original production in 1857 at the Lyceum Theatre, London. Another was Martha in 1858 at the Drury Lane theatre, in an English translation; a reviewer in The Musical World wrote, "Mr. George Honey made an amusing caricature of Lord Tristan, but was not always to be praised for his extravagances."

From the early 1860s he concentrated on the dramatic stage, mainly in comic roles playing dissipated characters, for which he became popular.

In 1865 he appeared in William Brough's burlesque Prince Amabel; in 1866 he was in Watts Phillips's The Huguenot Captain.

In 1867 he appeared at the Prince of Wales Theatre in the original production of Caste by T. W. Robertson, which opened on 6 April; he played the part of Eccles. In the Daily News on 8 April, a critic wrote about this production:

Instead of the conventional clowns who are put in by slop-work dramatists to lighten the serious interest of their work, we have real characters who think, speak, and act like human beings, and yet are intensely amusing and interesting. The drunken father, evidently made up from Mr. George Cruikshank's pictures of The Bottle, is admirably played by Mr. George Honey, who made his first appearance at this theatre, and who never acted better.... The make-up, the voice, the manner, the savagery in one part, the hypocritical maudlin grief in another, the toadying to wealth in another, the disgust and abuse when wealth refuses to deposit even a sovereign, the exits and entrances of this character, are things to be gratefully remembered....

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