Seymour Hicks
Encyclopedia
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
performer, playwright, screenwriter, theatre manager and producer. He married the actress Ellaline Terriss
Ellaline Terriss
Ellaline Terriss, born Ellaline Lewin , was a popular English actress and singer, best known for her performances in Edwardian musical comedies...
in 1893. Hicks was the first British actor to perform in France during both 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...
and World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and he received the Croix de Guerre
Croix de guerre
The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...
twice for his services. Hicks was knighted
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
in 1934.
Life and career
Hicks was born in St. HélierSaint Helier
Saint Helier is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. St. Helier has a population of about 28,000, roughly 31.2% of the total population of Jersey, and is the capital of the Island . The urban area of the parish of St...
on the island of Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
. At the age of nine, he appeared as Little Buttercup in Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
's H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
at his school in Bath. After that, he was determined to be an actor.
Early career
Hicks first appeared professionally on stage at the age of sixteen in a production of In the Ranks at the Grand, Islington. In 1889, he joined the theatrical company of Mr.William Hunter Kendal
William Hunter Kendal was an English actor and theatre manager. He and his wife Madge starred at the Haymarket in Shakespearian revivals and the old English comedies beginning in the 1860s. In the 1870s, they starred in a series of "fairy comedies" by W. S. Gilbert and in many plays on the West...
and Mrs. Kendal
Madge Kendal
Dame Madge Kendal GBE , born as Margaret Shafto Robertson, was an English actress of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, best known for her roles in Shakespeare and English comedies. Together with her husband, W. H...
for an American tour where they presented a repertory of contemporary plays. Hicks starred as Dr. Watson in the first revue show ever staged in London, Under the Clock (1893), a parody of Holmes and Watson written by Hicks with Charles Brookfield
Charles Brookfield
Charles Hallam Elton Brookfield was a British actor, author, playwright and journalist, including for The Saturday Review. His most famous work for the theatre was The Belle of Mayfair ....
(who played Holmes), at the Royal Court Theatre. After that, he starred in a revival of Little Jack Sheppard
Little Jack Sheppard
Little Jack Sheppard is a burlesque melodrama written by Henry Pottinger Stephens and William Yardley, with music by Meyer Lutz, with songs contributed by Florian Pascal, Corney Grain, Arthur Cecil, Michael Watson, Henry J. Leslie, Alfred Cellier and Hamilton Clarke...
at the Gaiety Theatre, London
Gaiety Theatre, London
The Gaiety Theatre, London was a West End theatre in London, located on Aldwych at the eastern end of the Strand. The theatre was established as the Strand Musick Hall , in 1864 on the former site of the Lyceum Theatre. It was rebuilt several times, but closed from the beginning of World War II...
. This brought him to the attention of impressario George Edwardes
George Edwardes
George Joseph Edwardes was an English theatre manager of Irish ancestry who brought a new era in musical theatre to the British stage and beyond....
. In 1894, Hicks joined his wife in the successful "Fairy pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
", Cinderella
Cinderella
"Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper" is a folk tale embodying a myth-element of unjust oppression/triumphant reward. Thousands of variants are known throughout the world. The title character is a young woman living in unfortunate circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune...
, produced by Henry Irving
Henry 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...
with music by Oscar Barrett, where she had been playing the title role. He played Thisbe, one of Cinderella's half-sisters who, in this version, were "Girton College girls who can jabber Greek and Latin, read French, play golf, and indulge in manly exercises. Thisbe has an affectation for intellectuality - Ibsen, Spooks, and the new humor."
Edwardes gave Hicks the chance to star in his next show, The Shop Girl
The Shop Girl
The Shop Girl was a musical comedy in two acts written by H. J. W. Dam, with Lyrics by Dam and Adrian Ross and music by Ivan Caryll, and additional numbers by Lionel Monckton and Ross. It was first produced by George Edwardes at the Gaiety Theatre in London, opening on 24 November 1894...
(1894), which became a hit. Hicks's wife later joining him, playing the title role, and together they made the musical an even bigger hit. They repeated the production on Broadway and then toured in America in 1895, where they befriended the American novelist Richard Harding Davis
Richard Harding Davis
Richard Harding Davis was a journalist and writer of fiction and drama, known foremost as the first American war correspondent to cover the Spanish-American War, the Second Boer War, and the First World War. His writing greatly assisted the political career of Theodore Roosevelt and he also played...
. At the instance of 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...
, Hicks wrote a drama called One of the Best, a vehicle for his father-in-law William Terriss
William Terriss
William Terriss was an English actor, known for his swashbuckling hero roles, such as Robin Hood, and in Shakespeare plays, and for his murder outside a London theatre. His daughter was the Edwardian musical comedy star Ellaline Terriss.-Life and career:Terriss's real name was William Charles...
at the Adelphi Theatre
Adelphi Theatre
The Adelphi Theatre is a 1500-seat West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receiving house for a variety of productions, including many musicals...
, based on the famous Dreyfus Trial. The Hickses were frequent guests of Gilbert at his estate in 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...
. Hicks hurried back from America for the opening in December 1895. It ran for over a year.
Another early success for the young couple was The Circus Girl
The Circus Girl
The Circus Girl is a musical comedy in two acts by James T. Tanner and Walter Apllant , with lyrics by Harry Greenbank and Adrian Ross, music by Ivan Caryll, and additional music by Lionel Monckton....
(1896). Hicks and Terriss both had a comedy background, and they transformed the "lovers" roles in musicals from overly sentimental to mischievous and light-hearted. Hicks then worked as co-author on The Yashmak
The Yashmak
The Yashmak, A Story of the East is a musical play, with a libretto by Cecil Raleigh and Seymour Hicks, adapted from an Armenian operetta, Leblébidji Horhor, which had been a success in 1896 in Constantinople. The music was composed by Napoleon Lambelet , and additional songs were composed by...
and then on one of the Gaiety Theatre's most successful shows, A Runaway Girl
A Runaway Girl
A Runaway Girl is a musical comedy in two acts written in 1898 by Seymour Hicks and Harry Nicholls. The composer was Ivan Caryll, with additional music by Lionel Monckton and lyrics by Aubrey Hopwood and Harry Greenbank...
(1898), in which Terriss played the title role. This was followed by With Flying Colours (1899). Also in 1899, Hicks starred in A Court Scandal, a comedy adapted by Aubrey Boucicault and Osmond Shillingford from "Les Premiéres Armes de Richelieu".
The Frohman years
Charles Frohman
Charles Frohman was an American theatrical producer. Frohman was producing plays by 1889 and acquired his first Broadway theatre by 1892. He discovered and promoted many stars of the American theatre....
and, in his company, over a period of seven years, they played the leads in a series of musicals written by Hicks, including Bluebell in Fairyland
Bluebell in Fairyland
Bluebell in Fairyland is a Christmas-season children's entertainment described as a "a musical dream play", in two acts, with a book by Seymour Hicks, lyrics by Aubrey Hopwood and Charles H. Taylor, and music by Walter Slaughter. It was produced by Charles Frohman. The creators sought to...
(1901 with music by Walter Slaughter
Walter Slaughter
Walter Alfred Slaughter was an English conductor and composer of musical comedy, comic opera and children's shows. He was engaged in the West End as a composer and musical director from 1883 to 1904.-Life and career:...
and lyrics by Charles Taylor
Charles H. Taylor (lyricist)
Charles Henry Taylor was a British lyricist, best known for his lyrics for early 20th century West End musical comedies and a comic opera, Tom Jones.-Life and career:...
— this Christmas show for children was continually revived for the next four decades) and The Cherry Girl (1902). Hicks and Terriss also starred in Quality Street
Quality Street (play)
Quality Street is a comedy in four acts by J. M. Barrie, written before his more famous work Peter Pan. The story is about two sisters who start a school "for genteel children"....
in 1902. At that time, they moved to a new home, The Old Forge, at Merstham, Surrey. Their cul-de-sac was renamed "Quality Street".
Hicks also wrote the highly successful The Earl and the Girl
The Earl and the Girl
The Earl and the Girl is a musical comedy in two acts by Seymour Hicks, with lyrics by Percy Greenbank and music by Ivan Caryll. It was produced by William Greet and opened at the Adelphi Theatre in London on 10 December 1903. It transferred to the Lyric Theatre on 12 September 1904, running for...
(1903) and the successful The Catch of the Season
The Catch of the Season
The Catch of the Season is an Edwardian musical comedy by Seymour Hicks and Cosmo Hamilton, with music by Herbert Haines and Evelyn Baker and lyrics by Charles H. Taylor, based on the fairy tale Cinderella...
(1904 with Herbert Haines
Herbert Haines
Herbert Haines was a British composer of musicals and songs, including some pieces for silent films, in the early years of the 20th century.Haines's musicals, most by Seymour Hicks, with lyrics by Charles H...
and Taylor). Ellaline was pregnant with Elizabeth, the couple's first child, although they had adopted a little girl, Mabel in 1889. Ellaline's role in this show went, initially, to Zena Dare
Zena Dare
Zena Dare was an English singer and actress who was famous for her performances in Edwardian musical comedy and other musical theatre and comedic plays in the first half of the 20th century, and for her role as Mrs...
, although Terriss soon assumed the role. Hicks wrote, and Frohman produced, The Talk of the Town (1905 with Haines and Taylor), The Beauty of Bath
The Beauty of Bath
The Beauty of Bath is a musical comedy with a book by Seymour Hicks and Cosmo Hamilton, lyrics by C. H. Taylor and music by Herbert Haines; additional songs were provided by Jerome Kern , F. Clifford Harris and P. G. Wodehouse . The story concerns a young woman from a noble family, who falls in...
(1906 with Haines and Taylor; the show included additional lyrics by newcomer P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
and additional music by Jerome Kern
Jerome Kern
Jerome David Kern was an American composer of musical theatre and popular music. One of the most important American theatre composers of the early 20th century, he wrote more than 700 songs, used in over 100 stage works, including such classics as "Ol' Man River", "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man", "A...
), My Darling (1907 with Haines), and The Gay Gordons (1907). Hicks used some of the fortune he received from these shows to build the Aldwych Theatre
Aldwych Theatre
The Aldwych Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Aldwych in the City of Westminster. The theatre was listed Grade II on 20 July 1971. Its seating capacity is 1,200.-Origins:...
in 1905 and the Hicks Theatre
Gielgud Theatre
The Gielgud Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster, London, at the corner of Rupert Street. The house currently has 889 seats on three levels.-History:...
in 1906, which was renamed the "Globe Theatre" in 1909 and then the "Gielgud Theatre" in 1994. The Beauty of Bath was the first production at the theatre.
Later stage work
In The Dashing Little Duke (1909; with C. Hayden CoffinC. Hayden Coffin
Charles Hayden Coffin was an English actor and singer known for his performances in many famous Edwardian musical comedies, particularly those produced by George Edwardes....
, Courtice Pounds
Courtice Pounds
Charles Courtice Pounds , better known by the stage name Courtice Pounds, was an English singer and actor known for his performances in the tenor roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company and his later roles in Shakespeare plays and Edwardian musical comedies.As a young member...
and Louie Pounds
Louie Pounds
Louisa Emma Amelia "Louie" Pounds was an English singer and actress, known for her performances in musical comedies and in mezzo-soprano roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company....
), produced by Hicks at the Hicks Theatre, which was less successful, Hicks' wife played the title role (a woman playing a man). When she missed several performances due to illness, Hicks played the role — possibly the only case in the history of a musical where a husband succeeded to his wife's role. The piece was based on A Court Scandal, in which Hicks had played in 1899. Hicks then wrote and starred in Captain Kidd (1910), a version of the American comedy. Hicks appeared in his first Shakespeare play that year, Richard III. The following year, he took a company on a tour of South Africa. After the outbreak of 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...
, Hicks was the first British actor to bring a tour to France (with Terriss), giving concerts to British troops at the front. Because of this, he was awarded the French Croix de Guerre
The Dictator, adapted by Hicks, was a smart flop, marking the end of the Hicks/Terriss era of supremacy in the musical theatre in post-Merry Widow
The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow is an operetta by the Austro–Hungarian composer Franz Lehár. The librettists, Viktor Léon and Leo Stein, based the story – concerning a rich widow, and her countrymen's attempt to keep her money in the principality by finding her the right husband – on an 1861 comedy play,...
London. Hicks and Terriss concentrated on comedy roles and music hall tours, including Pebbles on the Beach (1912), singing and dancing 'Alexander's Ragtime Band'. Their one return to musical comedy, Cash on Delivery (1917), confirmed the public's preference for comedy revues and music hall. Hicks continued to write light, escapist comedies, such as The Happy Day
The Happy Day
The Happy Day is an English musical comedy in two acts by Seymour Hicks, with music by Sidney Jones and Paul Rubens, and lyrics by Adrian Ross and Rubens. It was produced by George Edwardes's company and was directed by Evett. The musical opened at Daly's Theatre in London on 13 May 1916 and ran...
(1916), Sleeping Partners (1917) and, after the war, satiric farces, such as Good Luck and Head Over Heels (1923) and adaptations of French farces (The Man in Dress Clothes).
Film career, Scrooge and later years
Hicks appeared in three early silent films: ScroogeScrooge (1913 film)
Scrooge is a 1913 British black and white silent film based on the 1843 novel A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. It starred Seymour Hicks as Ebenezer Scrooge. In the United States it was released in 1926 as Old Scrooge....
and David Garrick
David Garrick (1913 film)
David Garrick is a 1913 black-and-white silent film based on the life of British actor David Garrick. The film starred Seymour Hicks and Ellaline Terriss and was based on the 1864 play David Garrick by T. W. Robertson, adapted by Max Pemberton...
in 1913, and A Prehistoric Love Story in 1915. He decided in 1923 to produce his own films. His first film, in which he starred, was Always Tell Your Wife, which was based on one of his plays. While making that film, Hicks fired the director and hired an unknown young director to make his debut: Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
. Hicks directed Sleeping Partners (1930) and Glamour (1931). In addition, over a dozen films were made either from his plays or his scripts, and he starred in about twenty films, many with his wife.
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
for his promotion of French drama on the English stage. In 1934, he had taken over Daly's Theatre
Daly's Theatre
Daly's Theatre was a theatre in the City of Westminster. It was located at 2 Cranbourn Street, just off Leicester Square. It opened on 27 June 1893, and was demolished in 1937.-Early years:...
in London, where he produced and appeared in a series of successful plays including Vintage Wine that he and Ashley Dukes
Ashley Dukes
Ashley Dukes was an English playwright, critic, and theatre manager.In 1933, he founded the Mercury Theatre of London and wrote plays that appeared in the London West End and on Broadway...
adapted from a novel.
Hicks's most famous role was that of Ebenezer Scrooge
Ebenezer Scrooge
Ebenezer Scrooge is the principal character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol. At the beginning of the novel, Scrooge is a cold-hearted, tight-fisted and greedy man, who despises Christmas and all things which give people happiness...
in Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
's A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
. He first played this role in 1901 and eventually played it thousands of times onstage, often at benefits, and twice on film: the 1913 silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
Scrooge
Scrooge (1913 film)
Scrooge is a 1913 British black and white silent film based on the 1843 novel A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. It starred Seymour Hicks as Ebenezer Scrooge. In the United States it was released in 1926 as Old Scrooge....
and the 1935 film Scrooge
Scrooge (1935 film)
Scrooge is a 1935 British film directed by Henry Edwards featuring Seymour Hicks as Ebenezer Scrooge, the miser who hates Christmas. It was the first sound version of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, not counting a 1928 short subject that now appears to be lost.- Film :Hicks had...
, produced in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. In 1926, Pathé Pictures released the 1913 film in America under the title Old Scrooge. This 1926 print has been released on DVD. The 1935 Scrooge was the first feature-length film version of the story with sound. The film has been praised for its vivid atmosphere, but most of the ghosts in the film are not seen onscreen, except for the Ghost of Christmas Present
Ghost of Christmas Present
The Ghost of Christmas Present is a character in one of the best-known works of the English novelist Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. The Spirit closely resembles Father Christmas from local folklore....
(Oscar Asche
Oscar Asche
John Stange Heiss Oscar Asche , better known as Oscar Asche, was an Australian actor, director and writer, best known for having written, directed, and acted in the record-breaking musical Chu Chin Chow, both on stage and film, and for acting in, directing, or producing many Shakespeare plays and...
). Donald Calthrop
Donald Calthrop
Donald Calthrop was an English stage and film actor. He starred as the title character in the hit musical The Boy in 1917. He then appeared in 63 films between 1916 and 1940, including five films directed by Alfred Hitchcock.He was born in London and died in Eton from a heart attack.He was the...
portrays Bob Cratchit, and Maurice Evans
Maurice Evans (actor)
Maurice Herbert Evans was an English actor noted for his interpretations of Shakespearean characters. In terms of his screen roles, he is probably best known as Dr...
has a bit part as one of Scrooge's debtors. Most prints in circulation are of the abridged, six-reel (hour-long) version. The film was seldom seen due to the popularity of the 1938 and the 1951 film versions of Dickens's novel. Poor-quality prints were shown on television in the 1980s, but in 2002 the film was restored to its original eight-reel length and issued on DVD. In 2007 the hour-long version was issued in a colourised edition.
Among his other film appearances, Hicks starred in the film version of his show Vintage Wine
Vintage Wine
Vintage Wine is a 1935 British comedy film directed by Henry Edwards and starring Seymour Hicks, Claire Luce, Eva Moore and Judy Gunn.-Cast:* Seymour Hicks - Charles Popinot* Claire Luce - Nina Popinot* Eva Moore - Josephine Popinot...
(1935) and as Sir John Tremayne in The Lambeth Walk
The Lambeth Walk (film)
The Lambeth Walk is a 1939 British musical comedy film directed by Albert de Courville and starring Lupino Lane, Sally Gray and Seymour Hicks. It was an adaptation of the 1937 musical Me and My Girl. The film takes its title from the play's best known song The Lambeth Walk...
(1939), the film version of the stage musical Me and My Girl
Me and My Girl
Me and My Girl is a musical with book and lyrics by Douglas Furber and L. Arthur Rose and music by Noel Gay. It takes place in the late 1930s in Hampshire, Mayfair, and Lambeth....
, and Busman's Honeymoon
Busman's Honeymoon (film)
Busman's Honeymoon is a 1940 British detective film directed by Arthur B. Woods. An adaptation of the Lord Peter Wimsey story Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers, it starred Robert Montgomery, Constance Cummings, Leslie Banks, Seymour Hicks, Robert Newton and Googie Withers....
(1940). Hicks wrote for films until 1941 (Kisses for Breakfast, in which he starred, based on the play The Matrimonial Bed). When World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
began, he acted, on November 12, 1939, as the master of ceremonies at the first concert given in France by the newly formed ENSA (Entertainment National Service Association). For this action, Hicks was awarded his second Croix de Guerre.
He continued appearing on stage and in films until a year before his death in Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, England, at the age of 78.
Filmography
- ScroogeScrooge (1913 film)Scrooge is a 1913 British black and white silent film based on the 1843 novel A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. It starred Seymour Hicks as Ebenezer Scrooge. In the United States it was released in 1926 as Old Scrooge....
(1913) - David GarrickDavid Garrick (1913 film)David Garrick is a 1913 black-and-white silent film based on the life of British actor David Garrick. The film starred Seymour Hicks and Ellaline Terriss and was based on the 1864 play David Garrick by T. W. Robertson, adapted by Max Pemberton...
(1913) - A Prehistoric Love Story (1915)
- Always Tell Your Wife (1923)
- BlightyBlighty (film)Blighty is a 1927 British World War I silent film melodrama, directed by Adrian Brunel and starring Ellaline Terriss, Lillian Hall-Davis and Jameson Thomas...
(1927) - Sleeping Partners (1930)
- The Love Habit (1931)
- GlamourGlamour (1931 film)Glamour is a 1931 British drama film directed by Seymour Hicks and Harry Hughes and starring Seymour Hicks, Ellaline Terriss and Margot Grahame. A young, ruthless woman falls in love with a rising actor. It was loosely remade for the 1934 American film Glamour.-Cast:* Seymour Hicks ... Henry...
(1931) - Money for NothingMoney for Nothing (1932 film)Money for Nothing is a 1932 British comedy film directed by Monty Banks and starring Seymour Hicks, Betty Stockfeld and Edmund Gwenn. A peniless gambler is mistaken for a very wealthy man in Monte Carlo.-Cast:* Seymour Hicks ... Jay Cheddar...
(1932) - The Secret of the Loch (1934)
- Royal CavalcadeRoyal CavalcadeRoyal Cavalcade is a 1935 British, black-and-white, drama film directed by six separate directors: Thomas Bentley , Herbert Brenon, Norman Lee, Walter Summers, Will Kellino and Marcel Varnel. The film features Marie Lohr, Hermione Baddeley, Owen Nares, Robert Hale, Austin Trevor, James Carew,...
(1935) - Mr. What's-His-Name? (1935)
- ScroogeScrooge (1935 film)Scrooge is a 1935 British film directed by Henry Edwards featuring Seymour Hicks as Ebenezer Scrooge, the miser who hates Christmas. It was the first sound version of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol, not counting a 1928 short subject that now appears to be lost.- Film :Hicks had...
(1935) - Vintage WineVintage WineVintage Wine is a 1935 British comedy film directed by Henry Edwards and starring Seymour Hicks, Claire Luce, Eva Moore and Judy Gunn.-Cast:* Seymour Hicks - Charles Popinot* Claire Luce - Nina Popinot* Eva Moore - Josephine Popinot...
(1935) - It's You I Want (1936)
- Eliza Comes to Stay (1936)
- Change for a Sovereign (1937)
- The Lambeth WalkThe Lambeth Walk (film)The Lambeth Walk is a 1939 British musical comedy film directed by Albert de Courville and starring Lupino Lane, Sally Gray and Seymour Hicks. It was an adaptation of the 1937 musical Me and My Girl. The film takes its title from the play's best known song The Lambeth Walk...
(1939) - Young Man's FancyYoung Man's Fancy (film)Young Man's Fancy is a 77 minute long 1940 British comedy film directed by Robert Stevenson, who also wrote the story, and starring Anna Lee and Griffith Jones. An aristocratic Englishman is unhappily engaged to a brewery heiress but meets a human cannonball during a visit to a circus and falls in...
(1939) - Pastor HallPastor HallPastor Hall is a 1940 British drama film directed by Ray Boulting and starring Wilfrid Lawson, Nova Pilbeam, Seymour Hicks, among others. The film is based on the play of the same title by German author Ernst Toller who had lived as an emigrant in the United States until his suicide in...
(1940) - Busman's HoneymoonBusman's Honeymoon (film)Busman's Honeymoon is a 1940 British detective film directed by Arthur B. Woods. An adaptation of the Lord Peter Wimsey story Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy L. Sayers, it starred Robert Montgomery, Constance Cummings, Leslie Banks, Seymour Hicks, Robert Newton and Googie Withers....
(1940) - Kisses for Breakfast (1941)
- Fame is the SpurFame is the Spur (film)Fame is the Spur is a 1947 British drama film directed by Roy Boulting. It stars Michael Redgrave, Rosamund John, Bernard Miles, David Tomlinson, Maurice Denham and Kenneth Griffith. A British politician rises to power, abandoning on the way his radical views for more conservative ones...
(1947) - Silent DustSilent DustSilent Dust is a 1949 British drama/thriller film, directed by Lance Comfort and starring Nigel Patrick, Sally Gray, Stephen Murray and Beatrice Campbell. The screenplay was by Michael Pertwee, adapted from his own play The Paragon...
(1949)
External links
- Seymour Hicks at the IBDB Broadway database
- Biography of Hicks
- Brief profile of Hicks focusing on film career
- Information about Hicks's film career
- Photos and information about Hicks and Terriss's home at "Quality Street" in Merstham
- Listing and information of some of Hicks' shows, Flyrope.com
- List of some of Hicks' performances, Theatre Archive, University of Bristol
- List of some plays that Hicks wrote, Theatre Archive, University of Bristol
- Website of the Great Granddaughter of Seymour Hicks
- Youtube recording of Terriss and Hicks song medley