Career
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, 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 Noël 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.
Read more about this topic: Charles Hawtrey (actor Born 1858)
Famous quotes containing the word career:
“Each of the professions means a prejudice. The necessity for a career forces every one to take sides. We live in the age of the overworked, and the under-educated; the age in which people are so industrious that they become absolutely stupid.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“What exacerbates the strain in the working class is the absence of money to pay for services they need, economic insecurity, poor daycare, and lack of dignity and boredom in each partner’s job. What exacerbates it in upper-middle class is the instability of paid help and the enormous demands of the career system in which both partners become willing believers. But the tug between traditional and egalitarian models of marriage runs from top to bottom of the class ladder.”
—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)
“Like the old soldier of the ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Goodbye.”
—Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964)