Charles Cartwright

Duncan John Morley (7 March 1851 – 25 May 1915), known professionally as Charles Cartwright, was an English stage actor and actor manager in the Victorian era. He was best known for his portrayal of villains in the melodramas that flourished at London's Adelphi Theatre in the 19th century. He also played more sympathetic characters and, for a time, was under the management of Sir Henry Irving at the Lyceum. He toured extensively with productions around England and the provinces, as well as spending a season in India, two seasons in Australia and three in the USA.

Early life

Cartwright was born on 7 March 1851 in Clerkenwell, London to George Morley, a farmer from Berkshire turned wheelwright, and Caroline (née Lane) who was of Huguenot descent from Bethnal Green, London. The family lived in Warren Street in central London.[1]

Educated at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, he became a government clerk in London, a position his parents had organised for him. But the lure of the stage drew him to Birmingham in 1873, where he put himself forward for a role in a burlesque performance of Don Giovanni and changed his name to Charles Cartwright to avoid being found out by his parents.[2]

He spent the following year travelling around England in search of acting and singing engagements to develop his stage skills. In 1874, he became a stock actor at the Prince of Wales theatre in Liverpool. He appeared in burlesques and operettas until the arrival of the actress Jennie Lee heralded a move to more serious drama and an opportunity for a stand out role as Chadband in Little Jo, an adaptation of Charles Dickens' Bleak House.[3]

Career

Following Little Jo's transfer to London’s Globe Theatre in 1876, Cartwright moved away from burlesque to join the company at the Theatre Royal in Manchester, taking on a number of roles in Shakespearean revivals under the management of Charles Calvert.[4] After appearing as Osric in Henry Irving’s touring production of Hamlet,[5] Cartwright joined the company at the Lyceum on its return to London. His first role at the Lyceum was as Irving’s stunt double in a production of Vanderdecken, a play by W.G. Wills and Percy Fitzgerald in which Irving's character falls off a cliff.[6] Subsequently, Cartwright stayed at the Lyceum for two years, first under the management of Sidney Frances Bateman and then Irving.[4] He performed in a range of classical plays but found a talent for making villains credible, such as Job Trotter in the Dickens' adaptation, Pickwick.

But in 1879, some ill-judged comments led to Cartwright leaving the Lyceum. The company was on tour, sailing from Scotland to Ireland, when Henry Irving became ill with seasickness. Cartwright quipped that Irving didn't look like the young Hamlet. When the company was back in London, Irving informed Cartwright that his role in the forthcoming Hamlet revival would be that of the servant of Polonius - a part with barely any lines.[6]

Cartwright left Irving's company and travelled to Bombay, where he had been hired to manage the launch programme of 35 musical and theatrical productions at the city's new Gaiety Theatre, which opened on 6 December 1879.[6]

1880s

Arriving back in London in 1881, Cartwright joined William Creswick's company at the Surrey Theatre[5] for a Shakespearean revival season, before joining Edwin Booth’s 1882 tour in the north of England.[7] In Liverpool, he appeared as Troy in J Commyns Carr’s adaptation of Far From the Madding Crowd. The popular adaptation, in which Thomas Hardy was personally involved,[8] premiered on 27 February 1882, before going on a provincial tour and then transferring to London.[9]

He established himself in London and, in 1883, appeared with Kyrle Bellew and Marie Litton in a hugely successful production of Moths, an adaptation by Henry Hamilton of a novel by Ouida. He would go on to reprise his role in Moths a number of times in London, the provinces and colonies.[10]

The success of Moths guaranteed Cartwright a steady stream of leading roles. In 1887, he joined the company at the Adelphi Theatre in London, appearing in a number of productions alongside Olga Nethersole and William Terris. He was in 102 consecutive performances[11] of The Silver Falls, winning plaudits for his powerful and clever characterisation of the villain[12] and appeared in long runs of melodrama such as The Bells of Haslemere,[13] The Union Jack and Harbour Lights.[14]

1890s

The heavy performance and touring schedule took a toll on Cartwright's health. In October 1890, in search of a better climate, he took a company on a ten month tour of Australia, opening in Melbourne's Bijou Theatre,[15] on contract to the Brough and Boucicault Comedy Company.

After Australia, Cartwright returned to the Adelphi, where his performances included Oliver Cromwell in The White Rose (23 April – 10 June 1892)[16] and Jeptha Grimwade in 200 performances of William Pettit’s A Woman’s Revenge (1 July 1893 – 3 March 1894).[17]

In between engagements at the Adelphi, he broke away from playing villains to portray more sympathetic characters. He became involved in producing and directing plays, looking for new works, particularly literary adaptations. In 1894, he directed The Two Orphans (12 May – 18 June 1894) at the Adelphi,[18] with himself in the lead role and with Marion Terry playing one of the sisters. He was also in contact with authors and playwrights, among them Thomas Hardy, with whom he worked in Liverpool, and Oscar Wilde, who asked Cartwright to stage The Duchess of Padua.[19]

In 1895, he went into business with the theatre manager Henry Dana, taking out a 21-year lease on the Trafalgar Theatre.[20] His first move was to change the name of the theatre to the Duke of York's,[21] after gaining the approval of the future King George V. Opening with a successful run of Walter Frith’s Her Advocate, he eventually sub-let the theatre to the team behind The Gay Parissienne, which ran for 369 performances.

In early 1899, Cartwright sailed to Australia for a second tour at the invitation of Harry Rickards,[22] with a repertory of seven plays for which he had secured the Australian rights. Cartwright had assembled a company from London, this time with Beatrice Lamb as his leading lady. At a farewell dinner before his departure, Charles Wyndham and Max Beerbohm Tree delivered speeches rebuffing Clement Scott’s incendiary views on acting which he had published in January 1898 as 'Does the theatre make for good?'[23] News of the farewell party and its speeches was extensively covered in the media of the day.[24]

The tour took in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth, before sailing back to England in October 1898.

1900s

Cartwright began to concentrate once again on producing and directing plays. Setting up the London Matinee Syndicate Ltd., he solicited investment in theatrical productions with the promise of 10% returns.[25] Investors in this scheme would have seen dividends from Cartwright's staging of English Nell at the Prince of Wales, with Marie Tempest in the title role. It ran for 176 performances, one of which was captured as an early film.[26]

Buoyed by these successes, Cartwright travelled to America for the 1904-5 season, having assembled a group of actors including his brother-in-law Edmund Lyons for a run of Zwangwill’s Leah Kleschna at the Manhattan Theatre. With Minnie Fisk in the lead role and Cartwright playing the manipulative Kleshna, the play was a critical and commercial success, running for 131 performances.[27] Less popular was Cartwright's attempt at writing. The production of The Proud Laird, a play he had co-written with Cosmo Hamilton, closed after being described by The New York Times as "muckle ado aboot naething’.[28] Other successful plays in the tour were Zwangwill's Merely Mary Ann[29] and Nurse Marjorie.[30]

He returned to Broadway for the 1906-7[31] season and in 1910-11 toured California in David Belasco's production of The Lily, taking in the Clunie Theatre in Sacramento[32] and the Mason Theatre in Los Angeles,[33] before arriving back in England towards the end of 1911.

Death

On 3 April 1912, while performing in Chester Bailey Fernald's play 98.9, Cartwright suffered a stroke[34] which forced him into retirement.

He died of acute bronchitis and syncope at his home in Swiss Cottage on 25 May 1915, survived by his wife Eva and their daughter Edith. He is buried at St Mary's Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green.

Portraits on other websites

Pencil drawing by Percy Frederick Seaton Spence at the National Portrait Gallery.

Photograph in the J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs held by the University of Washington Libraries.

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References
  1. "1871 England Census for Duncan Morley (requires Ancestry login)". Ancestry.co.uk. London, St Marylebone, Rectory, District 10. Retrieved 22 June 2019.
  2. "Mr Charles Cartwright". Table Talk: 6. 27 Feb 1891 – via National Library of Australia. [...] the burlesque of Don Giovanni was the production of the time, and in this he gained an engagement, under the assumed name of "Charles Cartwright," which henceforward he resolved to make his own.
  3. "Mr. Charles Cartwright". Table Talk (Melbourne, Vic. : 1885 - 1939). 27 Feb 1891. Retrieved 24 June 2019. [...] it was not until [Cartwright] played Chadband in Jo that people began to have a glimmering of his real worth.
  4. "A Chat with Charles Cartwright on his taking over the Duke of York's theatre". The Era: 11. 12 October 1895.
  5. "The Idler. Mr. Cartwright and Miss Nethersole. A Little Autobiography". The Express and Telegraph (Adelaide, SA : 1867 - 1922). The National Library of Australia. 22 April 1891. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
  6. "Mr. Charles Cartwright. An Interview". The Inquirer and Commercial News (Perth, WA : 1855 - 1901). National Library of Australia. 5 August 1898. Retrieved 24 June 2019. I opened a new theatre, the Gaiety at Bombay and produced 35 pieces, some of them musical pieces, in five months.
  7. "THE IDLER". Express and Telegraph (Adelaide, SA : 1867 - 1922). 1891-04-22. p. 6. Retrieved 2019-07-08.
  8. Wilson, Keith (1995). Thomas Hardy on Stage. St Martin's Press. p. 26. The evidence suggests that Hardy's contribution was more than nominal
  9. Wilson, Keith. Thomas Hardy on Stage. p. 48.
  10. "A Chat with Charles Cartwright on his taking over the Duke of York's theatre". The Era. 12 October 1895.
  11. "The Adelphi Theatre Project: Calendar for 1888-1889". www.umass.edu. Archived from the original on 23 October 2015. Retrieved 2019-07-02.
  12. ""THE SILVER FALLS" AT THE ADELPHI". The Illustrated London News: 103. 26 January 1889.
  13. "The Adelphi Theatre Project: Calendar for 1887-1888". www.umass.edu. Retrieved 2019-07-12. Cartwright, Charles M. Captain Vere (279) in Bells of Haslemere, The (28 Jul 1887-8 Jun 1888)
  14. "The Adelphi Theatre Project: Calendar for 1888-1889". www.umass.edu. Retrieved 2019-07-12. Cartwright, Charles M.
  15. Marsden, Ralph. "Bijou Theatre". Theatre Heritage Australia. Retrieved 28 June 2019. Another celebrated English actress, Olga Nethersole, was partnered by Charles Cartwright in a month-long season from 23 May.
  16. "Calendar for 1891-1892". Calendar of the Sans Pareil and Adelphi Theatre 1806-1900. Archived from the original on 23 October 2015. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
  17. "The Adelphi Theatre Project: Calendar for 1893-1894". The Adelphi Theatre Project. Archived from the original on 18 October 2015. Retrieved 2 July 2019. Jephtha Grimwade (207) in Woman's Revenge (1 Jul 1893 - 3 Mar 1894)
  18. "The Adelphi Theatre Project: Theatre Management and Back Stage Personnel". www.umass.edu. Retrieved 2019-07-12. Cartwright, Charles M. (Stage directors) 1893
  19. Hart-Davis, Rupert (2000). The Letters Of Oscar Wilde. US edition: Henry Holt and Company LLC, New York. pp. 285. ISBN 978-1-85702-781-5.
  20. "The Duke Of York's Theatre, St. Martin's Lane, London". www.arthurlloyd.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-06-25.
  21. "ENTERTAINMENTS". West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954). 1898-08-03. p. 6. Retrieved 2019-06-25.
  22. "GENERAL CABLE NEWS". Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930). 1898-01-03. p. 5. Retrieved 2019-07-06.
  23. Blathwayt, Raymond (1898). Does the Theatre Make for Good? An Interview with Clement Scott. London: Hall. p. 4.
  24. Jones, Stanley (1899). The Actor and his Art. DOWNEY & CO. Limited. p. 152.
  25. "Advertising". The Era. 5 May 1900.
  26. "English Nell 1900 - scene from the second act of The Prince of Wales Theatre production". IMDB. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  27. Hischak, Thomas S. (2009). Broadway Plays and Musicals. McFarland & Company. Inc. p. 253. ISBN 978-0-7864-3448-0.
  28. "NOT MUCH HUMOR IN THE PROUD LAIRD". The New York Times. 25 April 1905. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
  29. "Merely Mary Ann – Broadway Play – Original | IBDB". www.ibdb.com. Retrieved 2019-07-12.
  30. "Nurse Marjorie – Broadway Play – Original | IBDB". www.ibdb.com. Retrieved 2019-07-12.
  31. "Charles Cartwright – Broadway Cast & Staff | IBDB". www.ibdb.com. Retrieved 2019-07-06.
  32. "Nance O'Neill Here Saturday Night". Sacramento Union. Volume 159, Number 28. 28 May 1911. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  33. "Belasco Tells of Long Hunt for Actors". Los Angeles Herald. Volume XXXIII, Number 220. 19 May 1911. Retrieved 6 July 2019.
  34. "Charles Cartwright". The Era: 12. 2 June 1915 – via British Newspaper Archive (requires subscription). During a run of that piece, <98.9> in the midst of a performance, Mr Cartwright suffered a stroke, from the effects of which he never fully recovered.
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