Pantomimist and theatrical entrepreneur
The son of an army officer, Nelson Lee Jnr learned acting and juggling chiefly among the travelling fairs in and around London, and in 1827 was taken on by Robert Elliston as a utility player at the Surrey Theatre. He soon became a leading harlequin, and in 1831 wrote a pantomime that was produced at the Adelphi Theatre. Between the mid-1830s and 1850s he was involved in numerous theatrical activities and became one of Great Britain's most prodigious writers of pantomimes. Alan Ruston notes that while E. L. Blanchard and J. R. Planché achieved greater critical acclaim, Nelson Lee (as he was universally known) was the most prolific and financially successful writer of pantomimes of his day. Lee retired from the theatre in the mid-1860s but went on to mount regular entertainments at the Crystal Palace.
A number of Lee's works were adapted and localised for Australian audiences during the nineteenth century.
[Source: Alan Ruston. ‘Lee, (Richard) Nelson (1806–1872)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)]
