...b. 6, 1838. His real name was John Henry Brodribb, but he preferred the name of Irving, and in 1887 was permitted by royal license to continue the use of it. He was educated in a private school in London , and began his dramatic career in 1856, when he took the minor part of Orleans in . In 1866 he established his reputation as an actor of merit at the St. James Theatre, in London, as Doricourt in ....