Background
Theophilus was the son of William Bird, an actor long associated with the theatrical enterprise of Philip Henslowe and active in the years 1597–1622.
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Theophilus Bird
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Bird began his stage career in the Stuart era of English Renaissance theatre, and ended it in the Restoration period. He was one of the relatively few actors who managed to resume their careers after the eighteen-year enforced hiatus (1642-1660) when the theatres were closed during the English Civil War and the Interregnum. Theophilus was baptized on December 7, 1608.
The younger Bird started out as a boy player acting female roles, as was customary at the time.
He played Paulina in Massinger"s The Renegado for Queen Henrietta"s Men in 1625. He played Tota, the Queen of Fez, in Thomas Heywood"s The Fair Maid of the West, Participant 2 around 1630, when he was 21 years old.
Like most boy actors, Bird moved on the adult roles, like Masinissa in the company"s 1635 production of Thomas Nabbes"s Hannibal and Scipio. Bird married Anne Beeston, the eldest daughter of Christopher Beeston, the leading theatrical impresario of his generation.
Through this familial connection, Bird helped Beeston run his theatrical enterprise.
Bird moved to the King"s Men for the 1640-1642 years, along with five other of the troupe"s actors. On 25 March that year, Bird paid £480 of Beeston"s money to obtain a lease on the remains of the Salisbury Court. (The lease mentions that Bird was living in the parish of Street Giles in the Fields at the time The records of that parish list the burials of two of Bird"s children in 1638 and 1642)
Bird was also active, at least in a marginal way, in the world of authorship, letters, and publishing.
He wrote or co-wrote prefaces or dedications to dramatic works published in his era — the first editions of The Lady"s Trial (1639), The Sun"s Darling (1656), and The Witch of Edmonton (1658), works of John Ford and collaborators.
Bird resumed his acting career once the theatres re-opened in 1660. He was one of the fifteen men — Thomas Killigrew, Sir Robert Howard, and thirteen actors — who signed the 28 January 1661 agreement that defined the sharers in the King"s Company.
In September 1662, he reportedly broke his leg while fencing onstage, during a performance of Sir John Suckling"s play Aglaura. He resumed stage work after his recovery, and played Prospero in Richard Rhodes"s comedy Flora"s Vagaries on 3 November 1663.
Bird"s son, Theophilus Bird the Younger, pursued his own acting career during the Restoration era.
Membership
The extensive Henslowe papers in the collection of Dulwich College contain many mentions of the elder Bird and members of his family. Bird was made a Groom of the Chamber on 22 January 1641, along with five other members of the company. Bird"s status as a King"s Manitoba meant that he was one of the ten members of that troupe who signed the dedication of the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio of 1647 (though he had not been one of the actors who had played in the company"s productions of Fletcher"s plays during the previous three decades).
