Sir Charles Henry Hawtrey (21 September 1858 – 30 July 1923) was a celebrated stage actor, comedian, director and producer/manager, knighted in 1922 by King George V.
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He was born at Eton College, where his father, the Reverend John Hawtrey, was master of the lower school. He was educated at Eton College, and at Rugby School and Pembroke College, Oxford. His older brother, also named John, was a leading amateur footballer and represented England at international level.[1]
He managed London's Globe Theatre, the one demolished in 1902, during (1884–1887) and Royal Comedy Theatre (1887–1893, 1896–1898). He was noted for such works as The Private Secretary (his adaptation of a German farce, 1884), from which he earned the colossal sum of £123,000,[2] but he was a gambler throughout his life (and owned a string of racehorses). In his own words: "I lost half-a-crown at a small race meeting. Ever since, I've been trying to get that half-crown back, and it must have cost me half a million." Another of his major successes was A Message from Mars by Richard Ganthony. He played in Somerset Maugham's plays Jack Straw and Home and Beauty. He created the role of Lord Goring in Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband.
Sir Charles Hawtrey mentored Noel Coward. It has been said that Coward idolized Charles Hawtrey, and that it was from him that Coward learned both comic acting techniques and playwriting. A young Hermione Gingold understudied in some of Hawtrey's theatre productions. He was especially known for his expertise in playing light farce and became somewhat typecast in the role of the liar, especially erring husbands and other "cads", these parts becoming known (according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography) as "Hawtrey parts". . Also associated with a number of famous anecdotes and with the naming of the Hanky-Panky cocktail.
As a treat, Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon celebrated her 14th birthday in a box at the Coliseum Theatre, London, watching a Charles Hawtrey show (on 4 August 1914). On the same day her future father-in-law, King George V, declared war on Germany. The Poet Laureate, Andrew Motion, refers to this event in the poem celebrating her 100th birthday.
Hawtrey was twice married. He married on 3 June 1886 Madeline ("Mae") Harriet, daughter of Thomas Bowen Sheriffe, who divorced him in 1893 and died in 1905. In 1909 his then partner Olive Morris bore him a son, Anthony Hawtrey.[3] He married, secondly, at the age of 60 on 10 November 1919, the Honourable Mrs Albert Petre (née Katherine Elsie Clark), daughter of the Reverend William Robinson Clark and widow of the youngest son of the 11th Baron Petre. There were no children of either of his marriages. His second wife died on 14 November 1930.
He died on 30 July 1923 and is buried at Richmond, London. His biography The Truth at Last, was edited and finished by Somerset Maugham, and posthumously published in 1924. (The later actor named Charles Hawtrey was born George Hartree, and took the stage name of Sir Charles. Early in his career, he had claimed to be his son, thinking it would lead to work.)
Towards the end of his career, Hawtrey appeared in several silent films: