Gerald du Maurier

Sir Gerald du Maurier

Sir Gerald Hubert Edward Busson du Maurier (26 March 1873 – 11 April 1934) was an English actor and manager. He was the son of the writer George du Maurier, brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, and father of the writers Angela du Maurier and Dame Daphne du Maurier. He was also a friend of Henry James. His popularity lay in his subtle yet realistic acting style: a "delicately realistic style of acting that sought to suggest rather than to state the deeper emotions".^[1] His Times obituary said of his career: "His parentage assured him of engagements in the best of company to begin with; but it was his own talent that took advantage of them."

Biography

Du Maurier was born in Hampstead, London, and attended Heath Mount School^[2] and Harrow School. He initially pursued a career in business, but it did not suit him, and he took to the stage. He obtained his first engagement, a small part in Sydney Grundy's An Old Jew, via his father's friend John Hare, manager of the Garrick Theatre.

du Maurier as Captain Hook in Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up

After playing a number of small roles pre-1900, his popularity became assured via his acclaimed performance in major roles in the premieres of two J. M. Barrie plays: as Ernest in The Admirable Crichton in 1902, and the dual role of George Darling and Captain Hook (replacing Seymour Hicks, who had turned down the part) in Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, at the Duke of York's Theatre, London, on 27 December 1904. He also appeared in other Barrie plays including Dear Brutus.

The character of Wendy Darling in Peter Pan shares one of her middle names with Du Maurier's daughter Angela, and in later years Angela Du Maurier herself portrayed Wendy onstage. Du Maurier's nephews, the sons of his sister Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, were the inspiration for Peter Pan and other boy characters in Barrie's fiction.

With Frank Curzon, he co-managed Wyndham's Theatre from 1910 to 1925, and then moved to the St James's Theatre. He served as the president of The Actors' Orphanage. Knighted in 1922 at the peak of his popularity, he continued to perform throughout his life. In later years he took on cinema roles such as a German doctor in I Was A Spy, the emperor's valet in Catherine the Great and, shortly before his final illness, Wessensee in the 1934 Michael Balcon version of Jew Süss.

His daughter Daphne wrote a biography of him – Gerald: A Portrait – which was published shortly after he died of cancer in London in 1934.

Du Maurier was a regular cigarette smoker, and the du Maurier brand was named after him as a paid endorsement deal.^[3]

References

• Sir Gerald Du Maurier Actor, Manager, And Producer, Obituary, The Times, Apr 12, 1934
• James Harding, "Du Maurier, Sir Gerald Hubert Edward Busson (1873–1934)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 10 Sept 2007

External links

• "The Peter Pan Syndrome", Camden New Journal, 14 January 2005
• Gerald du Maurier at the Internet Broadway Database
• The Admirable Crichton - 1902 production, The Play Pictorial No. XI (1903).