William A. Conway (actor)

William Augustus Conway (1789 in London – 1828)^[1] was an English actor.

Biography

Conway was educated for the bar, but appeared on the stage at the Haymarket Theatre, in London, terminated a three years' engagement in 1816, starred till 1821, and went to the United States in 1823. He appeared as Hamlet and in other tragic roled in New York City and Philadelphia, visited the western and southern cities, took passage early in 1828 for Savannah, Georgia, and threw himself into the sea off Charleston Bar while on the voyage.

Conway won the affections of Hester Piozzi, whose letters to him were published in 1843. As Coriolanus he was considered to have been excelled by John Philip Kemble alone. His son, Frederick B. Conway, was also an actor.

References

1. John Tearle and Hester Lynch Piozzi, Mrs. Piozzi's Tall Young Beau, William Augustus Conway, Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1991.

•  Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John, eds. (1900). "Conway, William A.". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.