Harry Irvine (January 30, 1877 – August 7, 1951) was a British barrister turned actor, known in America during his later career for his many roles as clergymen. He first came to America with Johnston Forbes-Robertson's tour of 1915-1916, decided to stay, and taught acting at the Brooklyn Institute. He portrayed Archbishop Thomas Beckett in the 1936 Broadway premiere of Murder in the Cathedral by T. S. Eliot, Regnault de Chartres the Archbishop of Rheims in Joan of Lorraine, and Bishop Fisher in the original Anne of the Thousand Days, both by Maxwell Anderson. He also wrote one-act plays and The Actor's Art and Job, a well-received book for potential apprentices on acting as a profession.
Early years He was born John Henry Irvine in Vellore, British India, to George Duncan Irvine, a civil servant, and Emily Gertrude Kelly, on January 30, 1877, and was baptized a month later.John Henry Irvine in the India, Select Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947, retrieved from Ancestry.com In 1881, Irvine and his older siblings Emily and Francis were in England, living with their aunt Margaret Irvine in Middlesex.John H. Irvine in the 1881 England Census, retrieved from Ancestry.com By age 14, Irvine and Francis were boarders in Bristol,John H. Irvine in the 1891 England Census, retrieved from Ancestry.com while attending Clifton College. Irvine later graduated from Corpus Christi College, Oxford, with a B.A., and spent a period of time tutoring the children of Sir Hubert Herkomer at Bushey. After failing the exam for the Indian Civil Service, Irvine read law, and was called to the Bar at the Inner Temple.
UK stage career While tutoring at Bushey, Irvine had joined the local amateur drama society. His interest in acting continued during his legal career, and in 1904 he decided to try it as a profession. He secured a walk-on part from Herbert Beerbohm Tree in Richard II at His Majesty's Theatre, and was soon promoted to a featured role. He then joined the company of Lewis Waller as a leading player. In 1907 he was chosen to produce the Chelsea Pageant, upon the recommendation of A. B. Walkley who had seen several "compressed" amateur productions Irvine devised for students at St. Mark's College in Chelsea.
The Chelsea Pageant was a community historical project that after a year-long preparation opened to public viewing for a week in June 1908. Irvine devised a structure for it of twelve episodes in the history of the area. These episodes were dramatic recreations of local historical events, from Roman Britain through 1749, several of which were written by Irvine. The pageant was held at an outdoor amphitheater on the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea. It had high visibility in London newspapers, being opened by Princess Louise and the Duke of Argyll. Its success led to Irvine being identified as its producer when mentioned in the English press.
Max Reinhardt directed the premiere of The Miracle, a religious pantomime by Karl Vollmöller at the London Olympia in December 1911. Irvine started as assistant stage manager (ASM) to Reinhardt for this production, eventually working his way up to a principal role as the Minstrel.
Irvine was generally but not always credited on British stages as "J. Harry Irvine". There was an actor credited as Harry Irvine who was active in provincial towns from the 1890s through at least 1905, whose history cannot easily be reconciled with Irvine's own statements about his career.
Early US stage career Irvine joined Johnston Forbes-Robertson's final American tour, arriving in New York on October 7, 1915.John Henry Irvine in the New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943, retrieved from Ancestry.com The tour performed a repertory of three plays in smaller cities, finishing up in Cambridge, Massachusetts during late April 1916.
Brooklyn Institute After Forbes-Robertson's tour ended, Irvine decided to stay in the United States. Upon the strength of his membership in the companies of Forbes-Robertson and Beerbohm Tree, and of once having worked for Max Reinhardt, Irvine was appointed director for the Institute Players. This was the performing group associated with the Department of Dramatic Arts at the Brooklyn Institute. During January 1917 he led them in presenting three one-act plays at the Academy of Music, for one of which he also performed. The following month he delivered a lecture at the same venue on The Value of Amateur Acting. For March 1917, Irvine directed the Institute Players in Kindling, a three-act drama by Charles Kenyon. Irvine then directed them in four more one-act plays, one of which, a farce titled Blood, he wrote himself, while performing in another. The final work Irvine directed them in was The Taming of the Shrew in April 1917, for which he played Petruchio.
Bonstelle and Selwyn Irvine joined Jessie Bonstelle's company in May 1917; at the time this included Cora Witherspoon and Franklin Pangborn. In his 1942 book on the acting profession, Irvine said that Jessie Bonstelle was a "brilliant exception" among stock company directors, "who had a real genius for getting the best out of her actors".Irvine, p.101. From May through September 1917, Irvine performed with her company in Detroit and Buffalo in stock productions. He then joined Selwyn & Co., under the management of Edgar Selwyn during October 1917, for a featured role in a new farce, Losing Eloise. After tryouts in Wilmington, Delaware, and Atlantic City, the production premiered on Broadway during November 1917. Through a program printing error, Irvine was billed as "S. Harry Irvine" in New York newspaper reviews, instead of his usual "J. Harry Irvine". Retitled The Naughty Wife, by the time the play reached Boston on tour in January 1918, Irvine's billing was back to the usual.
The Naughty Wife tour ended in early June 1918, and Irvine went into another Selwyn & Company production titled Double Exposure, for a tryout in Washington, D.C. This fantasy farce by Avery Hopwood had another tryout in Buffalo, but its Broadway premiere was underwhelming, and it closed after twelve days.
Hampden Irvine next appeared on Broadway as Horatio with Walter Hampden in Hamlet, presented in a series of weekly matinees in the Elizabethan style, with a fuller text than usual. Irvine's performance "was exceptionally successful" with "admirable diction". Hamlet proved popular as a weekly matinee, and the Shakespeare Playhouse did a "companion piece" for MacBeth, again with Walter Hampden, Irvine playing Banquo. This was followed by As You Like It in February 1919, which starred Elsie Mackay, and in which Irvine played Le Beau. The Hamlet of Walter Hampden having proved so successful, Irvine accompanied it on tour through April 1919. Irvine said of Hampden to an interviewer: "Mr. Hampden is an artist who never finishes with a role. He is always studying and adding to it, eager to listen to criticism and learn from it". Irvine also mentioned Hampden's generosity as leading player towards other stage actors, willingly conceding the center to minor characters.
During May 1919 Irvine rejoined Jessie Bonstelle's company for summer stock. His wife, English actress Cicely Barcham, was also a cast member that season. Another new member of the company was a former apprentice of the Washington Square Players named Katharine Cornell. Irvine played the title role of an elderly attorney in Grumpy, though his main function with Bonstelle this season was as stage director. For Fall 1919, Irvine again joined Hampden for touring in Hamlet, this time as Claudius, and as Mercutio in a new production of Romeo and Juliet. March 1920 marked Irvine's return to Broadway, supporting Walter Hampden in George Washington, a three-act play by Percy MacKaye. He then resumed touring with Walter Hampden, taking the role of Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice. During a February 1921 performance in Baltimore, Irvine had to assume the role of Shylock when Hampden fell sick. By April 1921, Irvine had gone from Banquo to Macduff in Hampden's touring production of MacBeth.
Summer work, teaching, lectures In the Summer of 1921, Irvine and his wife joined the faculty of the Outdoor Players in Peterborough, New Hampshire. This was a summer school managed by Marie Ware Laughton to satisfy the dramatic aspirations of Boston society girls. It used costumes and props, but otherwise performed out of doors. Irvine directed the players and occasionally performed with them. During January 1922, Irvine started directing drama students for a school at the Lexington Theatre on Broadway. The school had its own theatre on the second floor, with a capacity for two hundred viewers. It was run by Clare Tree Major, under the direction of Walter Hampden, George Arliss, Arthur Hopkins, Rachel Crothers, and others.
It was a part-time gig; Irvine also did benefit performances for an adaptation of The Idiot, and that summer spent time with the Percival Vivian Players on the Chautauqua circuit. In August 1922, the first class of ten apprentices graduated from the Lexington Theatre drama school. Under Irvine's direction they had performed a three-act play by Rachel Crothers, The House of Lorimer, and his own translation from Spanish of the one-act Funcion di Moda. He also delivered lectures in New York City public schools on the dramatic works of James Barrie; as with other events in mid-1922, he began dropping his first initial for billing purposes.
Irvine firmly believed in Shakespeare the actor as playwright. In a lecture at the Brooklyn Institute during April 1923, he asserted that it was the acting profession that had kept Shakespeare alive through long periods of neglect by audiences and academics. The following year he publicly debated Willard Parker, then president of the Bacon Society of America, over the authorship of the plays. An audience of 800 attended their debate at The Brooklyn Institute lecture hall; no decision was given by the presiding moderator. By April 1925, Irvine had become president of the National Shakespeare Federation of America. Both Irvine and his wife performed with the Woodland Players at Winthrop and Lewiston, Maine during August 1925.
Irvine next joined the English Repertory Company headed by Florence Glossop-Harris, for a tour of Canada. Irvine was the leading man, playing Sheridan and Shakespeare, and more modern works, starting in Halifax, Nova Scotia during October 1925.
Later US stage career After an absence of ten years, Irvine returned to Broadway during December 1935 with a featured role in This Our House, a two-act historical tragedy based on Beatrice Cenci. Critic Arthur Pollack pointed out the abundance of earlier adaptations of the tale, and said of this version by Joel W. Schenker and Allan Fleming: "Their story turns out very badly on the stage. In fact, it is just so much mush", while also reporting "The acting is not enchanting". The production closed after just two performances.
Murder in the Cathedral