Pinero, Sir Arthur Wing

Description

Autograph ID: 4244
Condition: Very good, 2 mail folds
Description: “(1855-1934) English actor, later an important dramatist and director.

Born in London, son of a Sephardic Jewish solicitor, joined R. H. Wyndham’s company at the Theatre Royal in Edinburgh in 1874. After also acting in Liverpool, he joined Henry Irving’s Lyceum Theatre company in London in 1876, acting in supporting roles for 5 years, and later played under the Bancrofts’ management at the Haymarket Theatre. He received good notice in Sheridan’s The Rivals in 1884, which he revised himself. Pinero began writing plays in the late 1870s while at the Lyceum, including Daisy’s Escape (1879) and Bygones (1880). He became a prolific and successful playwright, authoring 59 plays, inc. serious social dramas like His House in Order and The Second Mrs Tanqueray (1893).

He is best known for his comedies, most notable are: The Schoolmistress (1866); The Magistrate (1885); Dandy Dick (1887); The Cabinet Minister (1890); The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith (1895); Trelawny of the ‘Wells’ (1898); The Gay Lord Quex (1899); and, Mind the Paint, Girl (1912). The Amazons, his 1895 farce, was filmed as a silent in 1917; his 1923 romance The Enchanted Cottage, was filmed in 1924 & 1945, and His House in Order, The Magistrate and Dandy Dick were also made into films. He wrote an opera in the style of a medieval morality play, The Beauty Stone, with Arthur Sullivan and J. Comyns Carr. He was knighted in 1909, 2nd man to be knighted for services to drama alone after W.S. Gilbert.

Autograph Sentiment (“Yours faithfully”) Signed on 8 x 5 woven “63, Hamilton Terrace, N.W.” (London) letterhead, adds February 1902 date.”
Type: Autograph Sentiment Signed