Colley, a celebrated comedian, dramatic writer, and poet laureate to the king, was born at London in 1671. His father Caius Gabriel Cibber, was a native of Holstein, and a skilful statuary, who executed the bas-relief on the pedestal of the monument, and the two admired figures of lunatics over the piers of the gate to Bethlehem Hospital in Moorfields. Colley, who derived his Christian name from the surname of his mother's family, was intended for the church, but betook himself to the stage, for which he conceived an early inclination; and he was some time before he acquired any degree of notice, or even a competent salary. His first essay in writing, was the comedy of Love's last Shift, acted in 1695, which met with success; as did his own performance of the character of the fop in it. From that time, as he says himself, "My muse and my spouse were so equally prolific, that the one was seldom the mother of a child, but in the same year the other made me the father of a play. I think we had a dozen of each sort between us; of both which kinds some died in their infancy, and near an equal number of each were alive when we quitted the theatre." The Careless Husband, acted in 1704, met with great applause, and is reckoned his best play; but none was of more importance to him than the Nonjuror, acted in 1717, and levelled against the Jacobites. This laid the foundation of the misunderstanding between him and Mr Pope, raised him to be the hero of the Dunciad, and made him poet-laureat in 1730. He then quitted the stage, except a few occasional performances; and died in 1757. Cibber neither succeeded in writing nor in acting tragedy; and his odes were not thought to partake of the genius or spirit he showed in his comedies.

His son Theophilus, also a comic actor after him, was born during a great storm in 1703; and after passing a life of extravagance, distresses, and perplexity, perished in another storm in 1758, in the passage between Dublin and England. Theophilus married the sister of Thomas Augustine Arne, the famous musical composer; who became a celebrated tragic actress, and whose honour was sacrificed to her husband's extravagance.