Sir Henry Irving (6 February 1838 – 13 October 1905), born John Henry Brodribb, sometimes known as J. H. Irving, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility (supervision of sets, lighting, direction, casting, as well as playing the leading roles) for season after season at the West End’s Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as representative of English classical theatre. In 1895, he became the first actor to be awarded a knighthood, indicating full acceptance into the higher circles of British society. Irving is widely acknowledged to be one of the inspirations for Count Dracula, the title character of the 1897 novel, Dracula, whose author, Bram Stoker, was business manager of the theatre.

Harry Brodribb Irving (5 August 1870 – 17 October 1919), was a British stage actor and actor-manager; the eldest son of Sir Henry Irving and his wife Florence (née O'Callaghan), and father of designer Laurence Irving and actress Elizabeth Irving. His first appearance on the stage, at age of twenty-one, was at the Garrick Theatre, London, in School. In 1906, he toured with success throughout the United States, appearing in plays made memorable by his father, The Lyons Mail, Charles I, and The Bells. In 1905, he gave a lecture, largely autobiographical, to the Academy of Dramatic Art in London. Inevitably, his early years as an actor were spent in the shadow of his father, especially as, at first, he was a member of Sir Henry Irving's Company.

In 1896, he married Dorothea Baird, who, after playing the part of "Trilby" the year before, was, at that time, the best known actress in Britain. HB and Dorothea had a son, Laurence, who became a well known Hollywood art director, and a daughter, Elizabeth. HB continued to be part of his father's company, but soon felt the need to branch out. In 1898, he joined George Alexander at the St James's Theatre, where he played "Don John" in Much Ado About Nothing, and appeared in the surprising hit, The Ambassador, a play written by Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie.

For the following seven years, the couple, selecting the parts that appealed to them, moved between companies, sometimes together and sometimes separately. In 1900, they both appeared in Beerbohm Tree's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream that ran for 153 performances at Her Majesty's Theatre. In 1904, only a year before his father's sudden death on 13 October 1905, Irving played Hamlet for the first time. The production by Otho Stuart, which was a popular success, was presented at the Adelphi Theatre, with Oscar Asche as Claudius, Walter Hampden as Laertes and Lily Brayton as Ophelia. After his father's death, he established his own company, that included his wife, and toured most provincial cities, playing mainly repeats of Sir Henry Irving's best remembered performances. For the opening night of the new King's Theatre in Southsea he presented Charles I, The Bells and The Lyons Mail. Occasionally, other plays were presented including, most successfully, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde at the Queen's Theatre, London. Film historian Troy Howarth writes "Some sources credit (Irving), who played Jekyll and Hyde on stage, as the director of The Duality of Man (a 1910 British film adaptation of the Jekyll and Hyde story)....". 

In 1911, Irving, Baird and their London Company toured Australia, again presenting Hamlet. Two years later, Baird retired from the stage, while Irving kept on performing. In 1913, he visited South Africa, and a photograph records his dinner with the Owl Club in Cape Town. In 1914, he appeared with Basil Rathbone in The Sin of David at the Savoy Theatre.