Trivia

He founded RADA (The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts) in 1904 in London, England.

He was the father of the director Carol Reed, who was his illegitimate son by his mistress May Pinney Reed.

Grandfather of Oliver Reed (Reed's father Peter was one of Tree's seven illegitimate children)

Half brother of cartoonist/satirist Max Beerbohm.

Father of actress Viola Tree and grandfather of actor David Tree.

He was the original Professor Henry Higgins in the first stage production of George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion" (1914). His spontaneous romantic ad libs to the play (such as throwing Eliza a bouquet of flowers at the end) infuriated Shaw, who was a strongly anti-romantic author. Fortunately, these ad libs did not become a part of tradition in future productions of the play.

When confronted by Shaw over his ad-lib to the ending of "Pygmalion", Tree replied: "My ending makes money; you should be grateful." Shaw then replied, "Your ending is damnable; you should be shot!"

He was knighted in 1909 for his services to the stage.

Father of actress/poet Iris Tree and grandfather of writer Ivan Moffat.

In 1878, Tree played Grimaldi in Dion Boucicault's The Life of an Actress at the Globe Theatre; shortly after, he began his professional career. For the next six years, he performed mainly on tour in the British provinces, playing character roles.

According to Tree's biographers, critics and audiences considered Tree to be the best character actor of his day. He himself detested the term "character actor".

Although Tree was regarded as a versatile and skilled actor, particularly in character roles, by his later years his technique was seen as mannered and old-fashioned.

The songwriter Maude Valérie White dedicated her setting of Byron's song "So we'll go no more a-roving" to Tree, "in grateful remembrance of 13 July 1888".

Tree's last professional undertaking was a visit to Los Angeles in 1915 fulfilling a contract with a film company. He was in America for the greater part of 1915 and 1916.

In 1899, he helped fund the rebuilding, and became manager, of His Majesty's Theatre. Again, he promoted a mix of Shakespeare and classic plays with new works and adaptations of popular novels, giving them spectacular productions in this large house, and often playing leading roles.

Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre in the West End, winning praise for adventurous programming and lavish productions, and starring in many of its productions.

His wife, actress Helen Maud Holt, often played opposite him and assisted him with management of the theatres.

Tree's early education included Mrs Adams's Preparatory School at Frant, East Sussex, Dr Stone's school in King's Square, Bristol, and Westbourne Collegiate School in Westbourne Grove, London. After these, he attended the Salzmann Schnepfenthal School in Thuringia, Germany, where his father had been educated. Upon his return to England, he began performing with amateur troupes, eventually using the name Herbert Beerbohm Tree, while working in his father's business.

His voice can be heard in excerpts from Shakespeare, on the Naxos CD "Great Historical Shakespeare Recordings".

He is interred at Saint John's Churchyard in London, England in the churchyard extension section.

He was of English, Dutch, German, and Lithuanian descent.

In the musical Cats, Jellylorum says of Gus, "He has acted with Irving, he's acted with Tree.".

Tree recorded five 10" records for the Gramophone Company (afterwards HMV, couplings as E numbers) in 1906.

According to writer Vera Brittain, he died suddenly in the arms of her friend, the novelist Winifred Holtby, then aged 19 and working as a nursing assistant at a fashionable London nursing home where Tree was recuperating from surgery to repair a broken leg.