Actor, dramatist, director/producer, company manager, elocutionist, pedagogue, theatre industry administrator.
The son of Rev. Dr James Begg, one of the leaders of the Free Church of Scotland, and a nephew of philanthropist Emily Faithful, William Begg (aka Walter Bentley) also claimed to have been a descendant of Scottish poet Robbie Burns. As a youth, he joined the merchant navy before spending some time on a sheep station in Queensland. He then moved to New Zealand, where he became involved first in amateur theatre and later in professional theatre. He returned to London around 1874, finding engagements at the Royal Court Theatre. Not long afterwards, he began what was to be a three-year association with Henry Irving's company at the Lyceum Theatre. Having by now adopted his stage name, Bentley undertook a number of British provincial tours that helped establish his reputation as a promising dramatic actor, particularly for his Shakespearian roles. Bentley spent some three years touring America (ca. 1884-1886) as the principal actor in a company that presented one of the plays most associated with him, The Silver King. He returned to London around 1886 to undertake an engagement at the Grand Theatre, after which he again toured the provinces prior to leaving for Australia.
Bentley made his debut Australian performance in 1891, playing Hamlet at Melbourne's Theatre Royal. By 1893, he had twice visited New Zealand in addition to presenting a number of Shakespearian and melodramatic productions throughout Australia. Some five years later (ca. 1898), he returned to tour the Australian states and New Zealand before settling temporarily in south-east Queensland. During this period, he operated a dramatic acting school in Brisbane, organised various public entertainments, and, in 1899, unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary seat of Carnarvon in the granite belt district of Stanthorpe. During his time in Brisbane, Bentley also collaborated with George Rignold to write the play Captain Dreyfus (which Rignold later staged in Sydney at the Criterion Theatre) and formed his own Vaudeville Players company for a season of variety theatre.
The first decade of the twentieth century saw Bentley continue his career as an actor and an orator for the most part in the United Kingdom. He returned to Australia for the third time in 1909, initially playing a season in Adelaide before undertaking a short but much acclaimed season of Hamlet under Stanley McKay's management at the Criterion Theatre, Sydney. He was then induced by variety entrepreneur Harry Clay to undertake an extensive regional tour through Queensland, including a season in Brisbane. Following the end of the tour, Bentley decided to settle in Sydney, and soon afterwards set up the Walter Bentley College of Elocution and Dramatic Acting. The college offered training in 'elocution, oratory, dramatic art, picture acting, musical monologues, elocution of song, scenario writing for private plays, public speaking and the curing of stuttering and stammering' (Green Room April 1918, n. pag.).
In 1910, he and George Titheridge founded the Actors' Association of Australia, with Bentley becoming its first secretary. He was also for many years a prominent member of the Shakespearian Society of New South Wales, being appointed at various times to the positions of both president and secretary. Bentley also contributed a number of articles and viewpoints to the trade journals during his later career, in addition to organising numerous benefits to Australian actors. In 1916, he made another unsuccessful attempt to enter parliament, contesting the seat of Drummoyne, and during the war years became a leading public figure in raising money and promoting Australia's commitment to the war. The following year, Bentley ended his association with the Walter Bentley College following its merger with the Austral College of Music (it subsequently became the Sydney Academy of Music and Dramatic Art), and soon afterwards moved his studio to the Repertory Theatre in Grosvenor Street. His school was thereafter known as the Walter Bentley Players. During the last decade of his life, Bentley continued to present his students to the public, mounting quality dramatic productions at the St James Theatre in Sydney, sometimes appearing in prominent roles himself. His final years, however, were plagued by ill-health, and on the 19th of September 1927 he took his own life, aged 79 years.
Among Walter Bentley's most acclaimed roles were those of Hamlet, Wilfred Denver (The Silver King), Shylock (The Merchant of Venice), David Garrick (David Garrick), and Bailie Nicol Jarvie (Rob Roy). Prominent theatre critic John Plummer wrote of Bentley in 1909, a time when the actor had reached the pinnacle of his craft:
'He is a man possessing ability amounting almost to genius, and to those who were familiar only with his acting in such parts as Hamlet or Wilfred Denver, his performances in David Garrick or Crammond Brig came as a surprise. He is one of the most capable and conscientious actors of the day, yet strangely enough, he had never had an opportunity of creating a character in a new play, a result, apparently, of a dearth of dramatic authors of the higher class' (Theatre Magazine December 1909, p.10).
