{{Short description|English actor and opera singer (died 1804)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}} [[File:Ann cargill.PNG|thumb|220px|Performing as Ferdinand in ''The Tempest'' with Ann Cargill]] '''George Mattocks''', also known as '''George Maddox''', (1734 or 1735 – August 14, 1804) was a British stage actor and operatic tenor.<ref name="Grove">{{Cite encyclopedia |author=Olive Baldwin|author2= Thelma Wilson|date=2001|entry=Mattocks, George|encyclopedia=Grove Music Online|publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.O007788}}</ref>
==Life and career== George Mattocks was born in England in either 1734 or 1735.<ref name="Grove"/> He appeared at Southwark Fair in 1747 as a child performer and the following year appeared at Bartholomew Fair.<ref>Highfill, Burnim & Langhans p.142</ref> Originally billed as George Maddox when he started at Drury Lane he soon altered the spelling of his name and was a regular member of the company from 1749 to 1752, also appearing at Richmond Theatre.<ref>Highfill, Burnim & Langhans p.142-43</ref> At Drury Lane he notably created the role of Palaemon the premiere of William Boyce’s ''The Chaplet'' (1749).<ref name="Grove"/>
He was absent from the London stage for several years, appearing at Bristol's Jacobs Well Theatre before returning to join the Covent Garden company in 1757. He remained at the theatre for the next twenty five years, particularly appearing in ballad operas and other musical events, some straight comedy but almost never tragedies.<ref>Highfill, Burnim & Langhans p.143</ref> In 1762 he was featured as Rimenes in the premiere of Thomas Arne's opera ''Artaxerxes'',<ref>Gilman p.340</ref> and that same year performed the role of Thomas Meadows in the premiere of Arne's ''Love in a Village''. He also created roles in the premieres of Samuel Arnold's ''The Maid of the Mill'' (1765, as Lord Aimsworth) and Don Ferdinand in ''The Duenna'' (1775).<ref name="Grove"/>
By 1760, Mattocks had become the lieutenant of Madame Capte Deville, the manager of Plymouth's summer company.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Johnson|first=Odai|title=London in a Box: Englishness and Theatre in Revolutionary America|publisher=University of Iowa Press|year=2017|isbn=978-1-60938-494-4|location=Iowa City|pages=86|language=en}}</ref> A year later, he bought half of Plymouth's Franfkford Gate Theatre and managed it until 1763.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Johnson|first=Odai|title=London in a Box: Englishness and Theatre in Revolutionary America|publisher=University of Iowa Press|year=2017|isbn=978-1-60938-494-4|location=Iowa City|pages=86|language=en}}</ref> This was where he hired John and Ann Barrington as well the actress Isabella Hallam, who grew up with their family.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Johnson|first=Odai|title=London in a Box: Englishness and Theatre in Revolutionary America|publisher=University of Iowa Press|year=2017|isbn=978-1-60938-494-4|location=Iowa City|pages=86|language=en}}</ref>
In 1765, he married actress and opera singer Isabella Hallam, who was afterwards billed Isabella Mattocks.<ref name=":0" /> Because he had previously had two children with the actress Harriet Pitt, her Isabella's guardians were opposed to the marriage so they eloped to France.<ref name="auto">Highfill, Burnim & Langhans p.146</ref> Mattocks had his first acting appearance in Liverpool at the Drury Lane Theatre in 1767.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Broadbent|first=R. J.|title=Annals of the Liverpool Stage: From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Together with Some Account of the Theatres and Music Halls in Bootle and Birkenhead|publisher=E. Howell|year=1908|location=Liverpool|pages=53–54|language=en}}</ref>
One of his final parts at Covent Garden was in John O'Keeffe's ''The Castle of Andalusia'' in 1782.<ref name="auto"/> He had continued to tour Britain in the summer, and was particularly associated with Liverpool and later Edinburgh, where he was stage director during his final years. Around 1784, he was identified as a co-partner of Joseph Younger in the management of the Theatre Royal Liverpool.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Cerberus|title=Theatrical Inquisitor, Volume I|publisher=Sherwood, Neely and Jones.|year=1812|location=London|pages=100|language=en}}</ref>
Mattocks died in Edinburgh on August 14, 1804.<ref name="Grove"/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Bibliography== * Gilman, Todd. ''The Theatre Career of Thomas Arne''. Rowman & Littlefield, 2013. * Highfill, Philip H, Burnim, Kalman A. & Langhans, Edward A. ''A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800: Volume 4''. SIU Press, 1975.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mattocks, George}} Category:1735 births Category:1804 deaths
Category:British operatic tenors Category:18th-century British male actors