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Richard Yates (actor)

English actor

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 29, 2025
Entity authorityQ7330127 ↗
Source-derived summary

Richard Yates (c. 1706–1796) was an English comic actor, who worked at the Haymarket Theatre and Drury Lane among others, appearing in David Garrick's King Lear. He also worked in theatre management, and set up the New Theatre in Birmingham in 1773. Both his first wife, Elizabeth Mary (maiden name unknown, died in 1753) and Mary Anne Graham (1728–1787; married in 1756) were actresses.

Life

Born about 1706, he played in Henry Fielding's Pasquin at the Haymarket when it was first performed. In 1737–9, at Covent Garden, he was seen in a number of parts. On 4 September 1739 he appeared at Drury Lane as Jeremy in Love for Love, and played other comic roles. At Goodman's Fields he appeared on 18 October 1740 as Antonio in Venice Preserved, playing further parts during the season. For his benefit and that of Mrs. Elizabeth Yates, his first wife (about whom little is known) who played at this time small parts such as Emilia in The Winter's Tale, and was the Duchess of York on David Garrick's first appearance on the stage, he attempted Lovegold in The Miser, in the style of Benjamin Griffin.

Editorial summary

“Richard Yates (actor)” enters the record as english actor. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Richard, Yates and actor can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1706, 1796, 1773, 1753—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1706-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Richard, Yates and actor.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Richard Yates (actor)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Richard, Yates and actor provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 29, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7330127. VIAF identifies the subject as 61106993. The Library of Congress control number is no91015802. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1706, 1796, 1773 and 1753.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

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  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Richard Yates (actor)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Richard Yates (actor) primary sources, Richard Yates (actor) archive and Richard research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Richard Yates (actor)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.