Eric Maxon (22 May 1882 – 1963) was an English stage and early film actor and member of the Royal Shakespeare Company for whom, for a period, he also designed the costumes.
He was born as Eric MacKay in Balham in London in 1882, the son of stockbroker Charles Stewart MacKay.[1] As Eric Maxon he joined the company of H.B. Irving in 1907 and with whom he toured Britain in The Lyons Mail, The Bells and Charles I, plays made memorable by Irving's father Henry Irving. From 1909 to 1910 Maxon appeared with the company of actor-manager Frank Benson in The School for Scandal. In 1912 he appeared in the stage play Ben-Hur in Australia.[2]
Maxon joined the Royal Shakespeare Company for their 1910–11 season, appearing in The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, The School for Scandal, The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, Hamlet, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Merchant of Venice, among other plays. He appeared in the silent films Richard III (1911) as Henry, Earl of Richmond[3] and played Capt. Gordon Chadley in After Dark (1915).
His appearances on Broadway included The White Feather (Comedy Theatre, 1915), Romeo and Juliet (44th Street Theatre, 1915). In a 1916 season at the (New Amsterdam Theatre he appeared in Henry VIII, The Merchant of Venice and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Further appearances included The Lost Leader (Greenwich Village Theatre, 1919), The Purple Mask (Booth Theatre, 1920), and The Skylark (Belmont Theatre, 1921).[4]