Mark Last King (5 February 1809 - 13 February 1879) was an English-

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n actor and politician. King was born in London, England as Mark Last, where he was apprenticed into the silk trade and then worked as a silk mercer in his own firm in Winchester Street. He migrated to Australia in 1838, arriving in Melbourne and working in the timber industry on the Clarence River in New South Wales for a short period. He then became an actor under the stage name of Morton King, performing variously in

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, Adelaide and Melbourne, largely in Shakespearean plays. Edmund Finn described King as having been in 1848 "believed to be unrivalled in his line on this side of the

Equator The equator is a circle of latitude, about in circumference, that divides Earth into the Northern and Southern hemispheres. It is an imaginary line located at 0 degrees latitude, halfway between the North and South poles. The term can als ...

". He subsequently adopted "King" as his legal surname on account of his success under that name. King began managing the Queen's Theatre in Melbourne in 1848 and leased the theatre in conjunction with

Charles Frederick Young Charles Frederick Horace Frisby Young (5 April 1819 – 29 January 1874) was an Australian actor, comedian and theatrical manager. Young was born in Doncaster, Yorkshire, England, and died in Woolloomooloo, New South Wales. See also * Francis ...

in 1850-51, around which time he substantially retired from acting. He moved to

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

for a time, but returned to Melbourne in 1853, becoming a successful auctioneer and estate agent in a partnership in Bourke Street and then as a broker doing substantial business with the Chinese merchant community. King went into politics in 1859, and was a member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly for West Bourke from 1859 to 1861, 1864 to 1874 and 1875 to 1877 and for Footscray from 1877 until his death in 1879. He was offered a ministry by

Charles Gavan Duffy Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, KCMG, PC (12 April 1816 – 9 February 1903), was an Irish poet and journalist (editor of ''The Nation''), Young Irelander and tenant-rights activist. After emigrating to Australia in 1856 he entered the politics of ...

, but declined on account of his policy differences with Duffy. King reportedly "seldom took part in debate, but was a constant attendant in the house". His last acting role was in a fundraising performance of '' The Merchant of Venice'' with other parliamentarians at the Theatre Royal in April 1861, in which he played

Shylock Shylock is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play ''The Merchant of Venice'' (c. 1600). A Venetian Jewish moneylender, Shylock is the play's principal antagonist. His defeat and conversion to Christianity form the climax of the ...

. King died at his home in Hotham Street, East Melbourne in 1879 aged 70 while still a serving MP, having been unwell for around eighteen months, and was buried at the Melbourne General Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:King, Mark Last 1809 births 1879 deaths Members of the Victorian Legislative Assembly