Oswald Yorke

Oswald Yorke

Annie Russell and Oswald Yorke in "Major Barbara" ca. 1906
Born Oswald Parkinson Harker
(1866-11-24)24 November 1866
Poole, Dorset, England, United Kingdom
Died 25 January 1943(1943-01-25) (aged 76)
New York City, New York, United States
Occupation Actor
Years active 1880s–1939
Spouse(s) Annie Russell
Ruth Guiterman

Oswald Yorke (née Harker) (24 November 1866 – 25 January 1943) was a British character actor who had a near sixty-year career performing on both sides of the Atlantic.

Early life

Oswald Parkinson Harker was born in Poole, Dorset,[1] the youngest of six children raised by Joseph and Sarah (née Parkinson) Harker. Yorke’s father, a solicitor, was born in York, Yorkshire, while his mother was a native of Richmond, Yorkshire.[2][3] As a boy, Yorke attended Christ’s Hospital Boys School, then located in Newgate.[4]

Career

Oswald Yorke first performed on stage in 1884 and later as a member of a company headed by British actor Sir Francis Robert Benson. Yorke’s London’s debut on 26 February 1889, at The Royal Strand Theatre, was followed early the next year by performances at London’s Vaudeville Theatre in such plays as School for Scandal, "A Pair of Lunatics" and "Meadow Sweet".[5][6][7] Oswald Yorke would remain a principal player with the Vaudeville Theatre throughout the balance of the 1890s.[8]

Ooswald Yorke (left) as Black Dog
with Bill Bones (Tim Murphy)

In 1896, Yorke toured America with Edward Smith Willard performing Henry Jones’ play The Rogue Comedy. The following year, he returned with Willard’s company with another of Jones’ works, The Physician.[9][10] In October 1900, he played an attaché with the French Embassy in The Eaglett, an adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s L’Aiglon by Louis Napoleon Parker that starred Maude Adams.[11] By the next year, Yorke became associated with the Empire Theatre on Broadway, first appearing as Lieutenant Sir Walter Mannering opposite John Drew and Guy Standing in Roger Marshall’s The Second in Command.[12] Yorke stayed with Empire Theatre, then under the management of Charles Frohman, for a number of seasons. He went on to play Bill Walker in George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara at the Court Theatre in London and Broadway’s New Theatre and later as Malvolio at the Century Theatre in Shakespeare’s The Twelfth Night.[13]

Over the remainder of his life, the balance of Yorke’s career was spent in New York. He played in at least thirty-one Broadway productions between 1900 and 1938. Yorke was Black Dog in a 1915 adaption of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island; Mr. Breen in the 1931 comedy "The Social Register" and Carter Hibbarb in George S. Kaufman’s 1938 success, First Lady. Yorke’s last Broadway performance, Justice Willis, came in the 1938 hit Oscar Wilde.[14]

During World War I, Yorke was put in charge of the entertainment of soldiers attached to the American Expeditionary Force in France. He was a member of The Lambs in New York and The Savage Club in London.[15]

Personal life

Yorke's co-star in "Major Barbara" was Annie Russell, an English actress popular with American audiences, whom he'd married in 1904.[16] The couple later divorced after some twenty-five years of marriage.[17]

Death

Oswald Yorke died on 25 January 1943 at his apartment on West Forty-Fifth Street after a battle with lobar pneumonia. He was survived by his second wife, Ruth Guiterman,[18] who had lost her uncle, writer Arthur Guiterman, just two weeks prior.[19]

References

  1. ↑ Yorke’s (Oswald Harker) birth date, 24 November 1866, quoted by some sources, may be off by a year, if the day and month are correct, for the event was recorded in the first quarter of 1866 by the General Register Office England & Wales, FreeBMD Birth Index, 1837-1915 about Oswald Harker -Ancestry.com
  2. ↑ Oswald Harker, Poole, Dorst – 1871 England Census
  3. ↑ Oswald Yorke (born Poole, Dorset) - SS Franconia Passenger Manifest – 19 October 1926
  4. ↑ Oswald Harker – Newgate, London - 1881 England Census
  5. ↑ Vaudeville Theatre - Echo (London), 8 February 1890, pg. 2
  6. ↑ Literary and Art Notices - Jewish Standard ( London) 7 March 1890, pg. 3
  7. ↑ Vaudeville Theatre - Lloyds Weekly Newspaper (London) 6 April 1890, pg. 6
  8. ↑ Vaudeville Theatre - London Daily Mail (London), 22 September 1899, pg. 4
  9. ↑ This Week's New Bills - New York Times - 6 December 1896; pg. 11
  10. ↑ Gould Back From Europe - New York Times - 18 September 1897; pg. 12
  11. ↑ Maude Adams As The Stricken Eaglet - New York Times - 23 October 1900; pg. 6
  12. ↑ The Theatres Last Night; New York Times 3 September 1901; pg. 7
  13. ↑ Oswald Yorke Dies;. On Stage.58 Years - New York Times - 26 January 1943; - pg. 19
  14. ↑ Oswald Yorke - Internet Broadway Database
  15. ↑ Oswald Yorke Dies;. On Stage.58 Years - New York Times - 26 January 1943; -pg. 19
  16. ↑ Reported Marriage Of Annie Russell; Actress Is Said to be the Bride of Oswald Yorke. - The New York Times - 28 March 1904
  17. ↑ Oswald Yorke Dies;. On Stage.58 Years - New York Times - 26 January 1943; -pg. 19
  18. ↑ Oswald Yorke Dies;. On Stage.58 Years - New York Times - 26 January 1943; -pg. 19
  19. ↑ Guiterman, Poet And Playwright - New York Times - 12 January 1943; pg. 23
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