Charles Wyndham ( actor ) Sir Charles Wyndham ( 23 March 1837 – January 12 , 1919 ) was an English actor - manager , born as Charles Culverwell in Liverpool , the son of a doctor . He was educated abroad , at King ' s College London and at the College of Surgeons and the Peter Street Anatomical School , Dublin . His taste for the stage - he had taken part in amateur drama - was too strong for him to take up either the clerical or the medical career suggested for him , and early in 1862 he made his first professional appearance in London , performing with Ellen Terry . Further stage work was not forthcoming , and he returned to medicine . There was a shortage of surgeons in the United States , which was in the throes of the Civil War , and he volunteered to became brigade surgeon in the Union army . He served at the battles of Fredericksburg , Chancellorsville and Gettysburg . On 17 November 1864 he resigned his contract with the Army to return to the stage . He starred , in 1867 , in W . S . Gilbert ' s " La Vivandière " . In later years he was to appear in America : between 1870 - 1872 in his own " Wyndham Comedy Company " ; and in later tours between 1882 and 1909 . On one occasion he appeared in New York with John Wilkes Booth . Returning to England , his career blossomed . Although he was occasionally to play Shakespeare , his work mostly consisted of the popular melodramas and comedies of the time . He played at Manchester and Dublin in " Her Ladyship ' s Guardian " , his own adaptation of Edward B . Hamley ' s novel " Lady Lee ' s Widowhood " . He reappeared in London in 1866 as Sir Arthur Lascelles in Morion ' s " All that Glitters is not Gold " , but his great success at that time was in F . C . Burnand ' s burlesque of " Black - eyed Susan " , as Hatchett , " with dance . " This brought him to the erstwhile St James ' s Theatre , where he played with Henry Irving in " Idalia " ; then with Ellen Terry in Charles Reade ' s " Double Marriage " , and Tom Taylor ' s " Still Waters Run Deep " . As Charles Surface , his best part for many years , and in a breezy three - act farce , " Pink Dominoes " , by James Albery , and in " Brighton " , an anglicized version of " Saratoga " by Bronson Howard ( 1842 – 1908 ) , who married his sister , he added greatly to his popularity both at home and abroad . In 1876 he took control of the Criterion Theatre . Here he produced a long succession of plays , in which he took the leading part , notably a number of old English comedies , and in such modern plays as " The Liars " , " The Case of Rebellious Susan " and others by Henry Arthur Jones and " Foggerty ' s Fairy " by W . S . Gilbert ( 1881 ) ; and he became famous for his acting in " David Garrick " . In 1899 he opened his new theatre , called Wyndham ' s Theatre . From 1885 onwards his leading actress was Miss Mary Moore ( Mrs . Albery ) , who became his partner in the proprietorship of the Criterion and Wyndham ' s theatres , and of his New Theatre , opened in 1903 ; and her delightful acting in comedy made their long association memorable on the London stage . Wyndham was knighted in 1902 . He married Emma Silberrad in1860 and when she died in 1916 , he married Mary Moore ( widow of James Albery ) , who for 30 years had been his leading lady and had also been associated with him as a manager . Wyndham is buried with both wives in Hampstead Cemetery .