Cyril Ritchard

Cyril Joseph Trimnell-Ritchard (1 December 1898 – 18 December 1977),[1] known professionally as Cyril Ritchard, was an Australian stage, screen and television actor, and director. He is best remembered today for his performance as Captain Hook in the Mary Martin musical production of Peter Pan. In 1945, he played Gabriele Eisenstein in Gay Rosalinda at the Palace theatre in London, a version of Strauss's Die Fledermaus by Erich Wolfgang Korngold in which he appeared with Peter Graves. The show was conducted by Richard Tauber and ran for almost a year.[2]

Cyril Ritchard
Ritchard (left) and Eddie Mayehoff in the play Visit to a Small Planet (1957)
Born
Cyril Joseph Trimnell-Ritchard

(1898-12-01)1 December 1898
Surry Hills, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Died18 December 1977(1977-12-18) (aged 79)[1]
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
OccupationActor
Years active1918–1977
Spouse(s)Madge Elliott

Life and career

Ritchard was born in the Sydney suburb of Surry Hills.[1][3] His parents were Sydney-born themselves: Herbert Trimnell-Ritchard, a Protestant grocer, and Marguerite, a Roman Catholic who raised her son in her faith. Educated by the Jesuits at St Aloysius' College, he studied medicine at Sydney University. His career in medicine was abandoned in 1917 when he decided to become an actor.

Dance teacher Minnie Hooper suggested Ritchard team up with one of her dancers, Madge Elliott, but Madge rejected him because he couldn't dance. Two years later, after a practice waltz, Madge and Cyril realized they were a team, and they went on a dancing tour of New Zealand.[4]

Madge and Cyril appeared in “Yes, Uncle!” [4] and “Going Up,” both in 1918. They then went their separate ways. Ritchard shared an apartment with Walter Pidgeon in New York while he appeared there, and Madge made her first West End appearance in 1925. Ritchard joined her in London and they reestablished the dancing partnership. In 1927 Laddie Cliff booked them to star in "Lady Luck" at the Carlton Theatre in 1927.[4]

In 1932 they returned to Australia where they were a hit. They appeared in a number of musicals, including "Blue Roses.” Their swan song performance in Australia[4] was their wedding ceremony was at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, in September 1935.[5] There were said to be 5,000 onlookers at the wedding; Madge's four-yard £400 veil had a starring role.[4]

Ritchard achieved star status in 1954 as Captain Hook in the Broadway production of “Peter Pan,” starring Mary Martin, who had the same birthday (1 December). For his work in the show, Ritchard received a Tony Award as Best Featured Actor in a Musical.[6] Both Ritchard and Martin reprised their roles in the NBC television productions of the musical, beginning with a live color telecast in 1955. In 1958, he starred in the Cole Porter CBS television musical “Aladdin”. In 1959, he won his second Tony Award, for Best Actor in a Play, for “The Pleasure of His Company.”

He appeared onstage in “The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd” (1965), with Anthony Newley, and “Sugar“ (1972).[7] He was also a Broadway director: “The Happiest Girl in the World“ (1961) (in which he also appeared), “Roar Like a Dove” (1964)[8][9] and “The Irregular Verb to Love” (1963) (in which he also appeared).[10]

His film appearances include the role of the villain in Alfred Hitchcock's early talkie “Blackmail“ (1929) and much later in the Tommy Steele vehicle “Half a Sixpence“ (1967).

Cyril Ritchard and Madge Elliott's wedding photo, 1935

Ritchard also appeared regularly on a variety of television programs in the late 1950s and 1960s. For example, he appeared as a mystery guest on “What's My Line?” on the 22 December 1957 episode of the popular Sunday night CBS-TV program.[11] In the 1950s Ritchard played the comic lead in Jacques Offenbach's operetta “La Perichole“ at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Later Ritchard served as a guest panelist on the Met's radio quiz show, where he was referred to as Sir Cyril, although he was never knighted. His wife, Madge Elliott, died in 1955 in New York.[4]

Death

Shortly before he died, Ritchard performed as the voice of Elrond in the Rankin/Bass television production of The Hobbit. Ritchard lived at The Langham, an apartment house in New York.

He suffered a heart attack on 25 November 1977, while appearing as the narrator in the Chicago touring company of Side by Side by Sondheim. He died on 18 December 1977 in Chicago, aged 79 (he was born on 1 December 1898).[1] He was buried at Saint Mary's Cemetery in Ridgefield, Connecticut, where he had resided in his rural home.[1] He was buried beside his wife. His funeral mass was celebrated by Archbishop Fulton Sheen.[5] He and Madge had a baby boy who died in infancy in 1939.

Filmography

Radio appearances
YearProgramEpisode/source
1952Theatre Guild on the AirThe Pickwick Papers[12]

References
  1. Pace, Eric. "Cyril Ritchard, 79, Dies in Coma; Was Actor, Singer and Director" The New York Times, 19 December 1977
  2. Charles Castle, This was Richard Tauber, London 1971
  3. The New York Times obituary gives his year of birth as 1898; the Australian Dictionary of Biography gives his year of birth as 1897, see Rickard, John. Cyril Joseph Ritchard
  4. "Ritchard, Cyril Joseph (1897–1977), dancer, actor, and theatre director". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. 2004. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/73290. Retrieved 12 April 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  5. "Madge Elliott and Cyril Ritchard".
  6. "Tony Awards, 1955" Archived 8 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine broadwayworld.com, accessed 26 March 2012
  7. Ritchard Listing, Broadway Internet Broadway Database, accessed 26 March 2012
  8. "Roar Like a Dove,” “Listing" playbillvault.com, accessed 26 March 2012
  9. “Roar Like a Dove” Internet Broadway Database, accessed 26 March 2012
  10. “The Irregular Verb to Love” Internet Broadway Database, accessed 26 March 2012
  11. "What's My Line?: Episode #394". TV.com.
  12. Kirby, Walter (21 December 1952). "Better Radio Programs for the Week". The Decatur Daily Review. p. 44. Retrieved 8 June 2015 – via Newspapers.com.
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