David Garrick David Garrick David Garrick (19 February 1717 – 20 January 1779) was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century, and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson. He appeared in a number of amateur theatricals, and with his appearance in the title role of Shakespeare's "Richard III", audiences and managers began to take notice. Impressed by his portrayals of Richard III and a number of other roles, Charles Fleetwood engaged Garrick for a season at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. He remained with the Drury
Garrick Theatre fire Garrick Theatre fire A fire killed eight young girls at the Garrick Theatre, Hereford, England, in 1916. The theatre was built in 1882 and renamed in 1909 after David Garrick, the actor and theatrical manager, who was born in Hereford in 1717. In 1916, during World War I, a fund-raising concert was held "for the benefit of the Herefords and Shropshires" (two local county regiments, the former actually being part of The Worcestershire Regiment; the latter the King's Shropshire Light Infantry) at the Garrick Theatre, Hereford. One of the turns was provided by more than forty local school-children, wearing snow