Did William Shakespeare act on stage?

Answer 1

Yes he did. He was a part of the Theatre Company that he wrote for.

It's not really certain which parts he played in his plays, but it is often thought that he played the ghost in Hamlet, which is significant because the play Hamlet was written shortly after the death of his son Hamnet, and the ghost is Prince Hamlet's father. Shakespeare wrote a play that was written to his son, and made himself the father figure.

Answer 2

A page in the First Folio lists William Shakespeare as one of "the principall actors in all these playes", but does not say which plays he was in or what parts he played. Some of the other actors in that list died or left the King's Men before many of the plays were written. We have actual proof that he acted in Ben Jonson's plays Sejanus and Every Man in His Humour, so it stands to reason that he acted in many of his own plays. He was known as an actor and was one of the partners in an acting company which mostly put on plays by Shakespeare himself. It's said that he favoured "kingly roles".

Answer 3

We know that Shakespeare acted in two plays by Ben Jonson: Every Man in his Humour and Sejanus. We also know that he was in some of his own plays. One of his contemporaries said he favoured "kingly roles". Someone a few generations later said that one of his roles was the Ghost in Hamlet which, although plausible, is very possibly gossip.

Answer 4

Yes, he is listed as having been in the cast of Ben Jonson's Sejanus and Every Man in his Humour, and is also listed in the First Folio of his own plays as an actor. He belonged to a theatrical company called the Lord Chamberlain's Men.

Answer 5

Yes, he wrote plays that were performed in the Globe Theatre and acted in them too. It says so in the First Folio, his collected plays published in 1623.