Richard Waring

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Richard Waring (27 May 1911 – 5 December 1994) was Waring appeared in many Broadway plays, including Dear Jane (1932), L'Aiglon (1934), The Women Have Their Way (1935), Camille (1935), The Corn is Green (1940), At the Stroke of Eight (1940), The Man Who Killed Lincoln (1940) (later to revive the character of John Wilkes Booth with Jose Ferrer in "Edwin Booth" (1958).), The Mad Hatter in Eva Le Gallienne's production of Alice in Wonderland (1947), A Pound on Demand, Androcles and the Lion, What Every Woman Knows, and King Henry VIII (all in 1947), Gramercy Ghost (1951), and Portrait of a Queen (1968). a Hollywood actor.

Waring was born Richard Stephens in Chalfont, Buckinghamshire, the son of Thomas E. Stephens, whose portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower hangs in the Smithsonian Gallery of Presidents. He took on his mother Evelyn M. Stephens's maiden name, Waring, as his stage name.

He was the brother of Peter John Stephens who was a playwright and writer of books for teenagers. He had no natural children by his later wife, Kathy Waring. He was previously married and divorced (1934) to Florida Friebus known for her portrayal of the mother of the TV character Dobie Gillis. He died of a heart attack January 18,1994 in City Island, The Bronx at the age of 82.(He has been incorrectly confused to be related to Derek Waring on other major sites, but according to his nephew this is not true.)

Waring began his career in 1931 with Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theater in New York City in minor roles in "Romeo and Julliet", "Camillle", and "Cradle Song". In 1940 he played opposite Ethel Barrymore in the "Corn is Green" and later with Eva Le Gallienne and was signed to play the role in Hollywood opposite Bette Davis, but entered the army during World War II. Before that he was fimed in his best-known screen role as Fanny Trellis' brother Trippy, whose theft to pay off his gambling debts forces her to marry Mr. Skeffington (1944) which ironically ended Waring's Hollywood career just like his character had ended his life in the World War I.

After his service he appeared on Broadway as the Duke of Buckingham in "Henry VII, John Shand in "J. M. Barrie",s "What Every Women Knows" and as the Captain in George Bernard Shaw's, "Androcles and the Lion".

He also appeared in many performances of the American Shakespeare Festival directed by John Houseman and the Phoenix Theatre in New York City, playing both bit roles and major parts in many of Shakespeare's plays, playing opposite Katharine Hepburn in both The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, and one performance in A Midsummer Night's Dream as Oberon before she had to leave the production.

Radio Broadcasts

"Elizabeth the Queen" (1952) Eva Le Gallienne

TV Broadcasts

Studio One "Wuthering Heights" (1950)

Hallmark Hall of Fame

MacDuff in Macbeth (1954) with Maurice Evans and Judith Anderson

Bertrand in Eagle in a Cage (1965)

Alfred Hitchcock Presents

"Kiss Me Again, Stranger" (1953)

"Festive Season" (1958).

Records

Scenes from Romeo and Juliet with Eva Le Gallienne (Atlantic Records, 1951 2 record set)