Educated at Charterhouse School, he studied art before turning to the theatre in 1874, when he first appeared on the London stage. He acted with the Bancrofts—Squire and his wife—and John Hare, played opposite Mary Anderson in England and the United States, and for some time was a leading member of Sir Henry Irving's company. His first outstanding success was in Sir Arthur Pinero's Profligate in 1889. In 1895 he took over the management of the Lyceum, with Mrs. Patrick Campbell as leading lady, giving memorable performances in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Macbeth, and also producing Maurice Maeterlinck's Pelléas and Mélisande, in which his Romantic style of acting was highly successful. In 1900 he married Gertrude Elliott, who became his leading lady, appearing with him in such plays as The Light That Failed, Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, and, one of his biggest successes, Jerome K. Jerome's Passing of the Third Floor Back. Forbes-Robertson was knighted in 1913 and retired in 1915. His daughter Jean Forbes-Robertson (1905–62) became a distinguished actress.