Cyril Maude
Encyclopedia
Cyril Francis Maude was an English actor-manager
.
and educated at the Charterhouse School
. In 1881, he was sent to Adelaide
, South Australia
, on the clipper ship City of Adelaide
to regain his health. He returned to England without having regained his health, but nursing the ambition to be an actor.
Maude fulfilled his acting ambition in Denver, Colorado
, in the U.S., in 1883. From 1896 until 1905 he was co-manager of the Haymarket Theatre
in London with Frederick Harrison. There he became known for his quietly humorous acting in many parts. In 1906 he went into management
on his own account, and in 1907 he opened The Playhouse, also in London.
Maude became very well known for his role as "Grumpy" a spoilt old man, who as a retired lawyer solved a crime to keep his loved ones happy. Maude took this play to Australia and toured Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney where it was immensely popular. In 1923 he toured America with Lydia Bilbrook
and Mabel Terry-Lewis
in If Winter Comes, playing at Chicago
in April and New York
in the autumn.
. In 1947, he appeared at the age of 85 in the film While the Sun Shines.
, the daughter of Samuel Anderson Emery
and granddaughter of John Emery, both well-known actors in their day. Their children included Margery Maude
, who became an actress; Pamela Cynthia Maude (1893–1975); and John Cyril Maude, who became a barrister, judge and Member of Parliament
. Pamela Maude married Major William La Touche Congreve VC
, DSO
, MC
on 1 June 1916. He was killed in action on 20 July 1916 during World War I
, for which he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross
. On 22 December 1919 she married Hon. William Fraser DSO
, MC
(1890-1964), who later became a Brigadier General
.
They also raised a niece, Winifred Isabel Emery (1890–1972), after the girl was abandoned by Emery's brother in 1895. This niece, together with her pupil Ruby Preece
, was present when dramatist W. S. Gilbert
died in his lake at Grim's Dyke
in May 1911. Winifred Isabel Emery was the mother of poet David Gascoyne
.
as the President of the Actors' Orphanage Fund (now called the Actors' Charitable Trust). During some remarkable years of service he established the first orphanage for actors' children at Croydon
, inaugurated innovative fundraising schemes and events, attracted royal patronage, and secured committee members from among leading actors of the day. He served until 1914.
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...
.
Biography
Maude was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and educated at the Charterhouse School
Charterhouse School
Charterhouse School, originally The Hospital of King James and Thomas Sutton in Charterhouse, or more simply Charterhouse or House, is an English collegiate independent boarding school situated at Godalming in Surrey.Founded by Thomas Sutton in London in 1611 on the site of the old Carthusian...
. In 1881, he was sent to Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
, on the clipper ship City of Adelaide
City of Adelaide (1864)
The City of Adelaide was built in 1864 by William Pile, Hay and Co. in Sunderland, England, and was launched on 7 May 1864. The ship was commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Carrick between 1923 and 1948 and, after decommissioning, was known as Carrick until 2001...
to regain his health. He returned to England without having regained his health, but nursing the ambition to be an actor.
Maude fulfilled his acting ambition in Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
, in the U.S., in 1883. From 1896 until 1905 he was co-manager of the Haymarket Theatre
Haymarket Theatre
The Theatre Royal Haymarket is a West End theatre in the Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use...
in London with Frederick Harrison. There he became known for his quietly humorous acting in many parts. In 1906 he went into management
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...
on his own account, and in 1907 he opened The Playhouse, also in London.
Maude became very well known for his role as "Grumpy" a spoilt old man, who as a retired lawyer solved a crime to keep his loved ones happy. Maude took this play to Australia and toured Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney where it was immensely popular. In 1923 he toured America with Lydia Bilbrook
Lydia Bilbrook
Lydia Bilbrook was an English actress whose stage and film career spanned four decades. It is claimed that she was an illegitimate daughter of the actor Herbert Beerbohm Tree...
and Mabel Terry-Lewis
Mabel Terry-Lewis
Mabel Gwynedd Terry-Lewis was a British actress and a member of the Terry-Gielgud dynasty of actors of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries....
in If Winter Comes, playing at Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
in April and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in the autumn.
Films
He starred in several films in the 1930s, including GrumpyGrumpy (film)
Grumpy is an American drama film directed by George Cukor and Cyril Gardner, and released by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay by Doris Anderson is based on a play by Horace Hodges and Thomas Wigney. A Spanish-language version entitled Cascarrabias, written by Catalan writer Josep Carner Ribalta ...
. In 1947, he appeared at the age of 85 in the film While the Sun Shines.
Personal life
In 1888, Maude married actress Winifred EmeryWinifred Emery
Winifred Emery , born Maud Isabel Emery, was an English actress and actor-manager of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She was the wife of the actor Cyril Maude....
, the daughter of Samuel Anderson Emery
Samuel Anderson Emery
Samuel "Sam" Anderson Emery was an English stage actor, the father of the actress Winifred Emery and grandfather of the actress Margery Maude and the judge John Cyril Maude.-Roles:Emery played at the Royal Adelphi Theatre in London in:...
and granddaughter of John Emery, both well-known actors in their day. Their children included Margery Maude
Margery Maude
Margery Kathleen Maude was an English actress of stage, screen and television.-Family:Maude was born in Wimbledon, London, the elder daughter of actors Cyril Maude and Winifred Emery. She married Joseph Warren Burden on 23 July 1917 in New York City. Maude and Burden had three children: Joseph...
, who became an actress; Pamela Cynthia Maude (1893–1975); and John Cyril Maude, who became a barrister, judge and Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
. Pamela Maude married Major William La Touche Congreve VC
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
, DSO
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
, MC
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
on 1 June 1916. He was killed in action on 20 July 1916 during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, for which he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross
Victoria Cross
The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for valour "in the face of the enemy" to members of the armed forces of various Commonwealth countries, and previous British Empire territories....
. On 22 December 1919 she married Hon. William Fraser DSO
Distinguished Service Order
The Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other parts of the British Commonwealth and Empire, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.Instituted on 6 September...
, MC
Military Cross
The Military Cross is the third-level military decoration awarded to officers and other ranks of the British Armed Forces; and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries....
(1890-1964), who later became a Brigadier General
Brigadier General
Brigadier general is a senior rank in the armed forces. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries, usually sitting between the ranks of colonel and major general. When appointed to a field command, a brigadier general is typically in command of a brigade consisting of around 4,000...
.
They also raised a niece, Winifred Isabel Emery (1890–1972), after the girl was abandoned by Emery's brother in 1895. This niece, together with her pupil Ruby Preece
Patricia Preece
Patricia Preece , born Ruby Vivian Preece, was an English artist associated with the Bloomsbury Group and the second wife of painter Stanley Spencer, for whom she modelled. As a teenager, Preece was involved in the death of dramatist W. S. Gilbert...
, was present when dramatist W. S. Gilbert
W. S. Gilbert
Sir William Schwenck Gilbert was an English dramatist, librettist, poet and illustrator best known for his fourteen comic operas produced in collaboration with the composer Sir Arthur Sullivan, of which the most famous include H.M.S...
died in his lake at Grim's Dyke
Grim's Dyke
Grim's Dyke is the name of a house and estate located in Harrow Weald, in Northwest London, England, built in 1872 by Norman Shaw, and named after the nearby pre-historic earthwork known as Grim's Ditch. The house is best known as the home of dramatist W.S. Gilbert, who lived there for the last...
in May 1911. Winifred Isabel Emery was the mother of poet David Gascoyne
David Gascoyne
David Gascoyne was an English poet associated with the Surrealist movement.-Early life and Surrealism:...
.
Actors' Orphanage Fund
In 1905, Maude succeeded Sir Henry IrvingHenry Irving
Sir Henry Irving , born John Henry Brodribb, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility for season after season at the Lyceum Theatre, establishing himself and his company as...
as the President of the Actors' Orphanage Fund (now called the Actors' Charitable Trust). During some remarkable years of service he established the first orphanage for actors' children at Croydon
Croydon
Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...
, inaugurated innovative fundraising schemes and events, attracted royal patronage, and secured committee members from among leading actors of the day. He served until 1914.
Filmography
- Beauty and the BargeBeauty and the Barge (1914 film)Beauty and the Barge is a 1914 British silent comedy film directed by Harold M. Shaw and starring Cyril Maude, Lillian Logan and Gregory Scott. It is an adaptation of the 1905 play Beauty and the Barge by W.W. Jacobs.-Cast:...
(1914) - Peer Gynt (1915)
- The Greater Will (1915)
- The Headmaster (1921)
- GrumpyGrumpy (film)Grumpy is an American drama film directed by George Cukor and Cyril Gardner, and released by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay by Doris Anderson is based on a play by Horace Hodges and Thomas Wigney. A Spanish-language version entitled Cascarrabias, written by Catalan writer Josep Carner Ribalta ...
(1930) - These Charming PeopleThese Charming PeopleThese Charming People is a 1931 British drama film directed by Louis Mercanton and starring Cyril Maude, Godfrey Tearle and Nora Swinburne. It was based on a play by Michael Arlen.-Cast:* Cyril Maude - Colonel Crawford* Godfrey Tearle - James Berridge...
(1931) - Counsel's OpinionCounsel's OpinionCounsel's Opinion is a 1933 British romantic comedy film starring Henry Kendall and Binnie Barnes. It was one of three films directed in Britain in the early 1930s by Canadian-American Allan Dwan and was an early production from Alexander Korda's London Films...
(1933) - Orders Is OrdersOrders Is OrdersOrders Is Orders is a 1934 British comedy film starring Charlotte Greenwood, James Gleason and Cyril Maude about an American film crew who move into a British army barracks to start making a film, much to the commander's horror...
(1934) - Girls Will Be BoysGirls Will Be BoysGirls Will Be Boys is a 1934 British comedy film directed by Marcel Varnel and starring Dolly Haas, Cyril Maude and Esmond Knight. A young woman dresses up as a boy to fool a wealthy misogynist. It is based on The Last Lord, a play by Robert Siodmak...
(1934) - Heat Wave (1935)
- While the Sun ShinesWhile the Sun ShinesWhile the Sun Shines is a 1947 British comedy film directed by Anthony Asquith. It was based on Terrence Rattigan's 1943 play of the same name. -Plot:...
(1947)