Alfred Maltby (c. 1842 – 12 February 1901) was an English actor, costume designer, playwright and columnist. He began his theatrical career in 1872, becoming a much sought-after costume designer in the West End. By 1875 he began to write comic plays, which were successfully staged. Persuaded to take a role in one of his own pieces in 1876 he also began an acting career in which he specialised in playing comic, eccentric and usually elderly characters, for which portrayals he also earned enthusiastic reviews. Maltby had a long and fruitful association with the actor-manager Charles Wyndham, becoming a regular member of his company at the Criterion Theatre in London. Outside the West End, Maltby toured in the British provinces and in Australia and New Zealand, maintaining simultaneous acting, designing and writing careers, and sometimes directing. He appeared in several of the first British productions of French farces by Alfred Hennequin and towards the end of his career he played in one of the first plays by Georges Feydeau to be seen in London. He also contributed columns to the humour magazines Judy and Fun. Life and career Early years Maltby studied costume design in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts and began his theatrical career as a costume designer, starting with an 1872 Christmas production of The Black Crook at the Alhambra Theatre, London. The piece received poor reviews, but the costumes were warmly praised: The Morning Post observed, "Anything more perfect as to design and colour – so perfect, it may possibly be said – has never been seen on the stage". Maltby was then engaged by F. B. Chatterton at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, where he worked on Shakespeare productions together with the scene painter, William Roxby Beverly. Maltby's designs continued to impress reviewers. In 1875 The Era praised "the genius he has displayed in the designs for grotesque, gorgeous and elaborate costumes". A later reviewer praised his "wonderful originality and the most exquisite taste … almost literally enchanting". Maltby became much sought after, and recalled that in one Christmas season he designed the costumes for shows at twelve different theatres. Maltby also wrote, and a comic play of his, Make Yourself at Home, was staged at the Holborn Empire in 1875 as the last item in a triple bill. In 1876 the actor Charles Collette invited Maltby to write him a one-act farce, suggesting it