Charles Hawtrey

Sir Charles Henry Hawtrey (21 September 1858 – 30 July 1923) was an English actor, director, producer and manager. He pursued a successful career as an actor-manager, specialising in debonair, often disreputable, parts in popular comedies. He occasionally played in Sheridan and other classics, but was generally associated with new works by writers including Oscar Wilde and Somerset Maugham.

Born to a long-established county family, Hawtrey was one of three of his parents' five sons to pursue a theatrical career. Before going on the stage he had considered joining the army, but failed to apply himself to the necessary studies to qualify for a commission. Once established as an actor he quickly took on the additional role of a manager, boosted by an early success with his own adaptation of a German farce presented in London as The Private Secretary, which made his fortune. A lifelong gambler, both with theatrical productions and on horseracing, to which he was addicted, he was bankrupted several times during his career.

Regarded as Britain's leading comedy actor of his generation, Hawtrey was mentor and role model to younger actors including Noël Coward. Towards the end of his career Hawtrey starred in a handful of silent movies.