Thomas, a celebrated actor, was the son of Mr Betterton, under-cook to King Charles I., and was born in Todhill Street, Westminster, in 1635. Having received some education, his fondness for reading induced his parents to accede to his desire to be apprenticed to a bookseller; and Mr Rhodes, near Charing Cross, was fixed on for his master. Rhodes, who had formerly been wardrobe-keeper to the theatre in Blackfriars, obtained in 1659 a license to set up a company of players at the Cockpit in Drury Lane; and there Betterton made his first appearance on the stage.

Soon after the Restoration, two different theatres were established by royal authority; the one in Drury Lane, in consequence of a patent granted to Henry Killigrew, Esq., which was called the "King's Company;" and the other in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields, the company of which styled themselves the "Duke of York's Servants." The patente of the latter was Sir William Davenant, who engaged Betterton, and all Rhodes's company, and opened the theatre in 1662 with a new play of his own, called the Siege of Rhodes. Betterton became so great a favourite with the king, that by his Majesty's special command he went over to Paris to examine the French stage with a view to the improvement of our own; and it was after his return, as is generally supposed, that shifting scenes were first used in the English theatre instead of tapestry.

In 1670 Betterton married Mrs Sanderson, a performer on the same stage; and his union with this accomplished and excellent woman was productive of the greatest domestic felicity. When the duke's company removed to Dorset Gardens, Betterton and his wife continued with them; as also on the coalition of the two companies in 1684.

In 1693 Betterton was enabled to erect a new playhouse within the walls of the Tennis Court in Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. It was opened in 1695 with Congreve's Love for Love, which was very successful. Yet, in a few years the profits arising from this theatre, opposed as it was by all the strength of Cibber's and Vanbrugh's writings at the other house, were insignificant; and Betterton, infirm through age, and labouring under violent attacks of the gout, gladly quitted the fatigues of management and the bustle of the stage.

On his retirement, the public, in order to testify their respect for this theatrical veteran, gave him a benefit-night, when the comedy of Love for Love was performed, in which Betterton himself, though upwards of seventy years of age, sustained the youthful part of Valentine. Some months afterwards he acted that of Hamlet, his performance of which is particularly mentioned in the Tatler. The profits of the night are said to have amounted to upwards of L500, the prices having been raised on the occasion.

The next winter Betterton was prevailed on by Mr Owen M'Swinney, then manager of the opera-house in the Haymarket, to lend his occasional aid; and in consequence of Bettinelli, this arrangement, in the spring of 1710, there was given out for his benefit The Maid's Tragedy, of Beaumont and Fletcher, in which he performed his celebrated part of Melanthus. This, however, was his last appearance on the stage; his rash attempt to reduce the swelling of his limbs by external applications, threw the gout into his head, and terminated his life on the 28th of April. On the second of May his body was interred with much ceremony in the cloister of Westminster. Betterton was the author of several dramatic works, which were popular in their day. An estimate of his character and abilities may be seen in the Apology for my own Life, &c., of Betterton's friend and rival Colley Cibber.