David Garrick, The Man Who Made Acting A Respectable Profession

He was skilled at charming his way into the circles of the great and good, and he built himself a riverside mansion for entertaining them. He was also admired for the high standards he expected of himself, his colleagues, and the operations of his theater. As Samuel Johnson once said of him, “Garrick has made a player a higher man. He lives rather as a prince than an actor.”