Life

The son of a brewer, he was born in Whitechapel

Whitechapel

Whitechapel is a built-up inner city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, London, England. It is located east of Charing Cross and roughly bounded by the Bishopsgate thoroughfare on the west, Fashion Street on the north, Brady Street and Cavell Street on the east and The Highway on the...

, London. At age 13 he left his home and joined a theatrical company at Fulham

Fulham

Fulham is an area of southwest London in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, SW6 located south west of Charing Cross. It lies on the left bank of the Thames, between Putney and Chelsea. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London...

, where he played Altamont in the Fair Penitent, receiving three shillings as a share in the profits. For some years, in Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

 and Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

, he played Romeo, George Barnewell, Hamlet, Jaffier, Tancred, and other tragic characters, and in 1767 was at the Haymarket Theatre

Haymarket Theatre

The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...

 under the management of Samuel Foote

Samuel Foote

Samuel Foote was a British dramatist, actor and theatre manager from Cornwall.-Early life:Born into a well-to-do family, Foote was baptized in Truro, Cornwall on 27 January 1720. His father, John Foote, held several public positions, including mayor of Truro, Member of Parliament representing...

, with Edward Shuter

Edward Shuter

Edward Shuter was an English actor.Shuter was born in London to poor parents. He made his first appearance on the London stage in 1745 in Cibber's Schoolboy. He made a great reputation in old men's parts...

, John Bannister

John Bannister (actor)

John Bannister , English actor and theatre manager.-Biography:John Bannister was born at Deptford. He was the son of Charles Bannister, also an actor. He first studied to be a painter, but soon took to the stage. His first formal appearance was at the Haymarket Theatre in 1778 as Dick in The...

, and John Palmer

John Palmer (actor)

John Palmer was one of the most highly-regarded actors on the English stage in the eighteenth century.-Birth and youth:He was born in the parish of St Luke's, Old Street, London, about 1742, was son of a private soldier...

. His performance, for Shuter's benefit, of Mordecai in Love à la Mode commended him to Covent Garden

Covent Garden

Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...

, where, on 7 November 1767, he was the original Postboy in Colman's Oxonian in Town; on 14 December the First Ferret in the Royal Merchant, an operatic version of the Beggar's Bush; and on 29 January 1768 the original Postboy in Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith

Oliver Goldsmith was an Irish writer, poet and physician known for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield , his pastoral poem The Deserted Village , and his plays The Good-Natur'd Man and She Stoops to Conquer...

's Good-natured Man. At Covent Garden, with occasional visits to Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, Portsmouth

Portsmouth

Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...

, and other towns, and to Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

, where he was for a time manager of the King Street Theatre, Quick remained during most of his career.

Quick's performances were at first as clowns, rustics, or comic servants. He was seen as Peter in Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...

, Simon Pure in A Bold Stroke for a Wife, Third Witch in Macbeth, Gripe in the Cheats of Scapin, the First Gravedigger in Hamlet

Hamlet

The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

, and many similar characters. His original parts at this period included Ostler in Colman's Man and Wife, or the Shakespeare Jubilee, Skiff in Richard Cumberland

Richard Cumberland (dramatist)

Richard Cumberland was a British dramatist and civil servant. In 1771 his hit play The West Indian was first staged. During the American War of Independence he acted as a secret negotiator with Spain in an effort to secure a peace agreement between the two nations. He also edited a short-lived...

's Brothers on 2 December 1769, and clown to the harlequin of Charles Lee Lewes

Charles Lee Lewes

-Biography:He was born the son of a hosier in London. After attending a school at Ambleside he returned to London, where he found employment as a postman. In about 1760 he went on the stage in the provinces, and some three years later began to appear in minor parts at Covent Garden Theatre...

 in the pantomime of Mother Shipton on 26 December 1770. On 5 June 1772 Quick was playing a theatre in Liverpool as Prattle in The Deuce is in him. At Covent Garden he was, on 8 December 1772, the original Consol in O'Brien's Cross Purposes, and on 6 February 1773 the original Momus in O'Hara's Golden Pippin.

These performances paved the way for his triumph, on 14 March, as the original Tony Lumpkin in She Stoops to Conquer

She Stoops to Conquer

She Stoops to Conquer is a comedy by the Irish author Oliver Goldsmith, son of an Anglo-Irish vicar, first performed in London in 1773. The play is a great favourite for study by English literature and theatre classes in Britain and the United States. It is one of the few plays from the 18th...

. The character had been refused by Henry Woodward. The following season (1773–4) saw him promoted to Mawworm in the Hypocrite, Grumio, Varland in the West Indian, and Autolycus Mufti in Don Sebastian. On 31 January 1774 he played Old Rents in the Jovial Crew, Foresight and Town Clerk in Much Ado about Nothing

Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....

; and on 17 January 1775 he was the first Bob Acres in The Rivals

The Rivals

The Rivals, a play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, is a comedy of manners in five acts. It was first performed on 17 January 1775.- Production :...

. Scores of comic characters were then assigned to him.

On 6 April 1790, for his benefit, Quick appeared as Richard III. He took the character seriously at the outset, until the laughter of the audience proved irresistible. On 14 March 1791 Quick created the part of Cockletop, an antiquary, in O'Keeffe's Modern Antiques, and on 16 April that of Sir George Thunder in his Wild Oats. On 18 February 1792 he was the first Silky in Holcroft's Road to Ruin, on 23 January 1793 the first Solus in Mrs. Inchbald's Every one has his Fault, on 5 February 1794. He created many further parts in the years that followed. On 11 April 1798, for his benefit, he gave a description of the Roman puppet show. On 13 April he played his last original part, probably Admiral Delroy, in Cumberland's Eccentric Lover.

Around this time, in declining health, he resigned his long engagement at Covent Garden. To his disappointment he was not engaged the following season. On 9 May 1799, for the benefit of Miss Leak, he appeared for the first time at Drury Lane

Drury Lane

Drury Lane is a street on the eastern boundary of the Covent Garden area of London, running between Aldwych and High Holborn. The northern part is in the borough of Camden and the southern part in the City of Westminster....

, and played Hardy in the Belle's Stratagem, and Lovegold in the Miser. On 12 June 1800, for O'Keeffe's benefit, he played at Covent Garden Alibi in the Lie of the Day, and Drugget in Three Weeks after Marriage; and for another benefit appeared next day as Isaac in The Duenna

The Duenna

The Duenna is a three-act comic opera, mostly composed by Thomas Linley the elder and his son, Thomas Linley the younger, to an English-language libretto by Richard Brinsley Sheridan...

.

In 1809 he took a tour in the north, appearing in Edinburgh, 25 January, as Sir Benjamin Dove in the Brothers. In 1809, in the same character, he made his first appearance at the Lyceum. On 24 May 1813 he came again out of retirement, taking part at the Haymarket Opera House in a benefit to Mrs. Mattocks, in which he played Don Felix in the Wonder.

Out of his earnings he saved £10,000, on the interest of which he lived, residing during his later years in Hornsey Row, subsequently Will's Row, Islington

Islington

Islington is a neighbourhood in Greater London, England and forms the central district of the London Borough of Islington. It is a district of Inner London, spanning from Islington High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the area around the busy Upper Street...

. He used to preside over a gathering held at the King's Head tavern, Islington. He died on 4 April 1831, and was buried beneath the old chapel-of-ease at Lower Holloway

Lower Holloway

Lower Holloway is a district in the London Borough of Islington, London. The name has fallen out of common use and the area is now generally regarded as being a part of Holloway. The area of Lower Holloway stretches from the South of Holloway Road to the Central side of Holloway, Nags Head. It is...

. In early life he married at Bristol the daughter of a clergyman named Parker, and had by her a son, William, and a daughter, Mrs. Mary Anne Davenport. He was so small in frame that Anthony Pasquin calls him "the smart tiny Quick". He was the favourite actor of George III.