born Aug. 24, 1795, London, Eng.
died Dec. 25, 1864, New York, N.Y., U.S.
British-U.S. actor-manager.
Born into a London stage family, he acted in Shakespearean roles from age 12 and made his U.S. debut as Macbeth in 1818. He performed in London and New York City until 1852, crossing the Atlantic 35 times. In 1837–39 he comanaged New York's National Theatre with his brother Henry John Wallack (1790–1870), the company's leading player. In 1852–62 he comanaged the Lyceum Theatre (renamed Wallack's Lyceum) with his son Lester (1820–88) as stage manager. Succeeding his father as general manager, Lester staged polished productions of English plays and trained most of the major 19th-century U.S. stage performers.