Gerald du Maurier
Encyclopedia
Sir Gerald Hubert Edward Busson du Maurier (26 March 1873 – 11 April 1934) was an English
actor
and manager
. He was the son of the writer George du Maurier
and brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. In 1902, he married the actress Muriel Beaumont
with whom he had three daughters: Angela du Maurier
(1904–2002), Daphne du Maurier
(1907–1989) and Jeanne (1911–1996). His popularity lay in his subtle yet realistic acting style: a "delicately realistic style of acting that sought to suggest rather than to state the deeper emotions".
His Times obituary said of his career: "His parentage assured him of engagements in the best of company to begin with; but it was his own talent that took advantage of them."
, London, and attended Heath Mount School
and Harrow School
. He initially pursued a career in business, but it did not suit him, and he took to the stage. He obtained his first engagement, a small part in Sydney Grundy
's An Old Jew, via his father's friend John Hare
, manager of the Garrick Theatre
.
After playing a number of small roles pre-1900, his popularity became assured via his acclaimed performance in major roles in the premieres of two J. M. Barrie
plays: as Ernest in The Admirable Crichton
in 1902, and the dual role of George Darling and Captain Hook
(instead of Seymour Hicks
, who had turned down the part) in Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, at the Duke of York's Theatre
, London, on 27 December 1904. He also appeared in other Barrie plays, including Dear Brutus.
Du Maurier's nephews
, the sons of his sister Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, were the inspiration for Peter Pan
and other boy characters in Barrie's fiction. The character of Wendy Darling
in Peter Pan shares one of her middle names with du Maurier's daughter Angela, who in later years portrayed Wendy onstage herself.
With Frank Curzon
, he co-managed Wyndham's Theatre
from 1910 to 1925, and then moved to the St James's Theatre
. He served as the president of The Actors' Orphanage. Knighted
in 1922 at the peak of his popularity, he continued to perform throughout his life. In later years he took on cinema roles such as Lord Camber's Ladies
(1932), a German doctor in I Was a Spy
(1933), the emperor's valet in Catherine the Great
(1934) and, shortly before his final illness, Wessensee in the Michael Balcon
version of Jew Süss
(1934).
Du Maurier was a regular cigarette smoker, and the du Maurier
brand was named after him as a paid endorsement deal (he did not smoke them himself), which he undertook to help pay back taxes.
He served as President of The Actors' Orphanage Fund (now the Actors' Charitable Trust) from 1914 to his death, when he was succeeded by Noel Coward.
His daughter Daphne wrote a biography of him – Gerald: A Portrait – which was published shortly after he died of colon cancer in London in 1934.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
and manager
Actor-manager
An actor-manager is a leading actor who sets up their own permanent theatrical company and manages the company's business and financial arrangements, sometimes taking over the management of a theatre, to perform plays of their own choice and in which they will usually star...
. He was the son of the writer George du Maurier
George du Maurier
George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier was a French-born British cartoonist and author, known for his cartoons in Punch and also for his novel Trilby. He was the father of actor Gerald du Maurier and grandfather of the writers Angela du Maurier and Dame Daphne du Maurier...
and brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. In 1902, he married the actress Muriel Beaumont
Muriel Beaumont
Muriel Beaumont, Lady du Maurier was an English stage actress. She was the wife of the actor Gerald du Maurier and mother of the writer Daphne du Maurier. She retired from the stage in 1910.-Biography:...
with whom he had three daughters: Angela du Maurier
Angela du Maurier
Angela du Maurier was a novelist who had eleven books published in total, including two volumes of autobiography, It's Only the Sister and Old Maids Remember....
(1904–2002), Daphne du Maurier
Daphne du Maurier
Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning DBE was a British author and playwright.Many of her works have been adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca and Jamaica Inn and the short stories "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now". The first three were directed by Alfred Hitchcock.Her elder sister was...
(1907–1989) and Jeanne (1911–1996). His popularity lay in his subtle yet realistic acting style: a "delicately realistic style of acting that sought to suggest rather than to state the deeper emotions".
His Times obituary said of his career: "His parentage assured him of engagements in the best of company to begin with; but it was his own talent that took advantage of them."
Biography
Du Maurier was born in HampsteadHampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
, London, and attended Heath Mount School
Heath Mount School
Heath Mount School is a co-educational prep school near Watton-at-Stone, Hertfordshire. It was originally based in Hampstead, until the 1930s when it moved to rural Hertfordshire.-Notable former pupils:...
and Harrow School
Harrow School
Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...
. He initially pursued a career in business, but it did not suit him, and he took to the stage. He obtained his first engagement, a small part in Sydney Grundy
Sydney Grundy
Sydney Grundy was an English dramatist. Most of his works were adaptations of European plays, and many became successful enough to tour throughout the English-speaking world...
's An Old Jew, via his father's friend John Hare
John Hare (actor)
Sir John Hare , born John Fairs, was an English actor and manager of the Garrick Theatre in London from 1889 to 1895.-Biography:Hare was born in Giggleswick in Yorkshire and was educated at Giggleswick school...
, manager of the Garrick Theatre
Garrick Theatre
The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a...
.
After playing a number of small roles pre-1900, his popularity became assured via his acclaimed performance in major roles in the premieres of two J. M. Barrie
J. M. Barrie
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. The child of a family of small-town weavers, he was educated in Scotland. He moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright...
plays: as Ernest in The Admirable Crichton
The Admirable Crichton
The Admirable Crichton is a comic stage play written in 1902 by J. M. Barrie. It was produced by Charles Frohman and opened at the Duke of York's Theatre in London on 4 November 1902, running for an extremely successful 828 performances. It starred H. B. Irving and Irene Vanbrugh...
in 1902, and the dual role of George Darling and Captain Hook
Captain Hook
Captain James Hook is the main antagonist of J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and its various adaptations. The character is a villainous pirate captain of the Jolly Roger brig, and lord of the pirate village/harbour in Neverland, where he is widely feared. Most...
(instead of Seymour Hicks
Seymour Hicks
Sir Arthur Seymour Hicks , better known as Seymour Hicks, was a British actor, music hall performer, playwright, screenwriter, theatre manager and producer. He married the actress Ellaline Terriss in 1893...
, who had turned down the part) in Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, at the Duke of York's Theatre
Duke of York's Theatre
The Duke of York's Theatre is a West End Theatre in St Martin's Lane, in the City of Westminster. It was built for Frank Wyatt and his wife, Violet Melnotte, who retained ownership of the theatre, until her death in 1935. It opened on 10 September 1892 as the Trafalgar Square Theatre, with Wedding...
, London, on 27 December 1904. He also appeared in other Barrie plays, including Dear Brutus.
Du Maurier's nephews
Llewelyn Davies boys
The Davies boys were the sons of Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies . They served as the inspiration for the characters of Peter Pan and the other boys of J. M...
, the sons of his sister Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, were the inspiration for Peter Pan
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
and other boy characters in Barrie's fiction. The character of Wendy Darling
Wendy Darling
Wendy Moira Angela Darling is a fictional character, the female protagonist of Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie, and in most adaptations in other media. Her exact age is not specified in the original play or novel by Barrie, though she is implied to be 12 or 13 years old or younger, as she is "just...
in Peter Pan shares one of her middle names with du Maurier's daughter Angela, who in later years portrayed Wendy onstage herself.
With Frank Curzon
Frank Curzon
Frank Curzon was an English actor who became an important theatre manager, leasing the Royal Strand Theatre, Avenue Theatre, Criterion Theatre, Comedy Theatre, Prince of Wales Theatre and Wyndham's Theatre, among others....
, he co-managed Wyndham's Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre is a West End theatre, one of two opened by the actor/manager Charles Wyndham . Located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, it was designed by W.G.R. Sprague about 1898, the architect of six other London theatres between then and 1916...
from 1910 to 1925, and then moved to the St James's Theatre
St James's Theatre
The St James's Theatre was a 1,200-seat theatre located in King Street, at Duke Street, St James's, London. The elaborate theatre was designed with a neo-classical exterior and a Louis XIV style interior by Samuel Beazley and built by the partnership of Peto & Grissell for the tenor and theatre...
. He served as the president of The Actors' Orphanage. Knighted
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
in 1922 at the peak of his popularity, he continued to perform throughout his life. In later years he took on cinema roles such as Lord Camber's Ladies
Lord Camber's Ladies
Lord Camber's Ladies is a British drama film directed by Benn W. Levy, produced by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Gerald du Maurier, Gertrude Lawrence, Benita Hume, and Nigel Bruce.-Plot:...
(1932), a German doctor in I Was a Spy
I Was a Spy
I Was a Spy is a 1933 British thriller film directed by Victor Saville and starring Madeleine Carroll, Herbert Marshall and Conrad Veidt. A Belgian woman who nurses injured German soldiers during World War I passes intelligence to the British....
(1933), the emperor's valet in Catherine the Great
Catherine the Great (1934 film)
Catherine the Great is a 1934 British historical film based on the play The Czarina by Lajos Biró and Melchior Lengyel, about the rise to power of Catherine the Great. It was directed by Paul Czinner, and stars Elisabeth Bergner as Catherine, Douglas Fairbanks Jr...
(1934) and, shortly before his final illness, Wessensee in the Michael Balcon
Michael Balcon
Sir Michael Elias Balcon was an English film producer, known for his work with Ealing Studios.-Background:...
version of Jew Süss
Jew Suss (1934 film)
Jud Süß is a 1934 British historical romantic drama film. Directed by Lothar Mendes, the film stars German actor Conrad Veidt in the role of Joseph Süss Oppenheimer. British censors did not allow a film to openly criticize the persecution of Jews, since it would have appeared as an attack on German...
(1934).
Du Maurier was a regular cigarette smoker, and the du Maurier
Du Maurier (cigarette)
du Maurier is a Canadian-centric brand of cigarettes, produced by Imperial Tobacco Canada, a subsidiary of British American Tobacco. The brand is named after Sir Gerald du Maurier, a British actor and manager. The brand is also produced under license by the West Indian Tobacco Company in Trinidad...
brand was named after him as a paid endorsement deal (he did not smoke them himself), which he undertook to help pay back taxes.
He served as President of The Actors' Orphanage Fund (now the Actors' Charitable Trust) from 1914 to his death, when he was succeeded by Noel Coward.
His daughter Daphne wrote a biography of him – Gerald: A Portrait – which was published shortly after he died of colon cancer in London in 1934.
Selected filmography
- UnmarriedUnmarried (1920 film)Unmarried is a 1920 British silent drama film directed by Rex Wilson and starring Gerald du Maurier, Malvina Longfellow and Edmund Gwenn. The film portrays an unmarried mother and the social workers who support her.-Partial cast:...
(1920) - EscapeEscape (1930 film)Escape is a 1930 British crime film directed by Basil Dean and starring Gerald du Maurier, Edna Best, Gordon Harker and Austin Trevor. A man escapes from Dartmoor Prison and is hunted across the moors by policemen to whom it is an unpleasant reminder of their experiences during the First World War....
(1930) - Lord Camber's LadiesLord Camber's LadiesLord Camber's Ladies is a British drama film directed by Benn W. Levy, produced by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Gerald du Maurier, Gertrude Lawrence, Benita Hume, and Nigel Bruce.-Plot:...
(1932) - I Was a SpyI Was a SpyI Was a Spy is a 1933 British thriller film directed by Victor Saville and starring Madeleine Carroll, Herbert Marshall and Conrad Veidt. A Belgian woman who nurses injured German soldiers during World War I passes intelligence to the British....
(1933) - The Scotland Yard MysteryThe Scotland Yard MysteryThe Scotland Yard Mystery is a 1934 British crime film directed by Thomas Bentley and starring Gerald du Maurier, George Curzon, Grete Natzler, Belle Chrystall and Wally Patch...
(1934) - The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934)
- Jew SüssJew Suss (1934 film)Jud Süß is a 1934 British historical romantic drama film. Directed by Lothar Mendes, the film stars German actor Conrad Veidt in the role of Joseph Süss Oppenheimer. British censors did not allow a film to openly criticize the persecution of Jews, since it would have appeared as an attack on German...
(1934)
External links
- "The Peter Pan Syndrome", Camden New Journal, 14 January 2005
- The Admirable Crichton - 1902 production, The Play PictorialThe Play PictorialThe Play Pictorial was an English theatrical magazine which was published in London between 1902 and 1939. It concentrated on providing a pictorial record of West End theatrical productions, each issue being devoted to a single show, with descriptions of the plot, the costumes and the sets, and...
No. XI (1903).