Ralph Wewitzer

Ralph Wewitzer (1748-1825) was a British actor, singer, dancer, and playwright.

Ralph Wewitzer was born on 17 December 1748 in Salisbury Street in London. He had four siblings, all of whom went on the stage for some period. There is some confusion about Wewitzer's lineage: The Hibernian Magazine for January 1775 said that their father was a native of Norway, but the Biographical Dictionary of Living Authors (1816) asserted that he was of Swiss origin.

Wewitzer started his career as a jeweler, however, he switched to acting when his much younger sister Sarah Wewitzer began her theatrical career. He made his debut at Covent Garden Theatre portraying the character of Ralph in The Maid of the Mill play by John Fletcher and William Rowley on Sarah's benefit night, 12 May 1773. He appeared only as a "Young Gentleman" but was identified later both by a notation by John Philip Kemble on a copy of the playbill and by an entry in his own Brief Chronology(1817). 

The 1792 edition of The Secret History of the Green Room says that he fled London debtors and acted in Dublin near the beginning of his career.

On 26 September 1774, Wewitzer replaced John Quick in some unspecified part in The Sylphs at Covent Garden. From then until the end of the 1788-89 season –– except a few summers at the Haymarket and several provincial excursions –– he was at Covent Garden.

An engraved portrait of Ralph Wewitzer by J. S. Agar was published on 19 June 1806. A pencil and watercolor portrait of him as Dr. Caius in The Merry Wives of Windsor, signed by Samuel De Wilde and dated 1808, is in the David Garrick Club (No 59F).