Ralph Lynn - Revision history

Kurt at 04:28, 28 December 2022

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	{{short description\|English actor (1882-1962)}}		{{short description\|English actor (1882-1962)}}

	~~[[File:Ralph-lynn.jpg\|thumb\|right\|upright=1\|Lynn in the early 1930s]]~~
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	\| birth_name = Ralph Clifford Lynn		\| birth_name = Ralph Clifford Lynn
	\| birth_date = {{Birth date\|1882\|03\|08\|df=y}}<!-- {{Birth date and age\|YYYY\|MM\|DD}} for living people supply only the year with {{Birth year and age\|YYYY}} unless the exact date is already widely published, as per [[WP:DOB]]. For people who have died, use . -->		\| birth_date = {{Birth date\|1882\|03\|08\|df=y}}
	\| birth_place = [[w:Hundred of Salford\|Salford]], [[w:Lancashire]]		\| birth_place = [[w:Hundred of Salford\|Salford]], [[w:Lancashire]]
	\| death_date = {{Death date and age\|1962\|08\|08\|1882\|03\|08\|df=y}}		\| death_date = {{Death date and age\|1962\|08\|08\|1882\|03\|08\|df=y}}

Kurt at 14:14, 27 December 2022

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	{{short description\|English actor (1882-1962)}}		{{short description\|English actor (1882-1962)}}
	~~{{Use dmy dates\|date=August 2016}}~~
	~~{{Use British English\|date=August 2016}}~~
	[[File:Ralph-lynn.jpg\|thumb\|right\|upright=1\|Lynn in the early 1930s]]		[[File:Ralph-lynn.jpg\|thumb\|right\|upright=1\|Lynn in the early 1930s]]
			{{Infobox person
			\| name = <!-- defaults to article title when left blank -->
			\| image = Ralph Lynn.jpg
			\| alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software -->
			\| caption =
			\| birth_name = Ralph Clifford Lynn
			\| birth_date = {{Birth date\|1882\|03\|08\|df=y}}<!-- {{Birth date and age\|YYYY\|MM\|DD}} for living people supply only the year with {{Birth year and age\|YYYY}} unless the exact date is already widely published, as per [[WP:DOB]]. For people who have died, use . -->
			\| birth_place = [[w:Hundred of Salford\|Salford]], [[w:Lancashire]]
			\| death_date = {{Death date and age\|1962\|08\|08\|1882\|03\|08\|df=y}}
			\| death_place = [[w:Surrey\|Surrey]]
			\| other_names =
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			}}
	'''Ralph Clifford Lynn''' (8 March 1882 – 8 August 1962) was an English actor who had a 60-year career, and is best remembered for playing comedy parts in the [[Aldwych farce]]s first on stage and then in film.		'''Ralph Clifford Lynn''' (8 March 1882 – 8 August 1962) was an English actor who had a 60-year career, and is best remembered for playing comedy parts in the [[Aldwych farce]]s first on stage and then in film.

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	==Life and career==		==Life and career==
	Lynn was born in [[Hundred of Salford\|Salford]], [[Lancashire]], the son of Gordon James Lynn, an insurance manager, and his wife, Janet ''née'' Thomas.<ref name=dnb>Morley, Sheridan. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37702 "Lynn, Ralph Clifford (1882–1962)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, January 2011, accessed 10 February 2013 {{ODNBsub}}</ref>		Lynn was born in [[w:Hundred of Salford\|Salford]], [[w:Lancashire]], the son of Gordon James Lynn, an insurance manager, and his wife, Janet ''née'' Thomas.<ref name=dnb>Morley, Sheridan. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37702 "Lynn, Ralph Clifford (1882–1962)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, January 2011, accessed 10 February 2013 {{ODNBsub}}</ref>

	In 1900 Lynn made his stage debut at [[Wigan]] in ''The King of Terrors''.<ref name=times>"Mr Ralph Lynn", ''[[The Times]]'', 10 August 1962, p. 11</ref> He spent his first 14 years as an actor performing in the British provinces and in the United States; he appeared at the Colonial Theatre, New York, in May 1913, as Algy Slowman in a revival of ''The Purple Lady''.<ref name=who>Parker, p. 595</ref> He made his first appearance on the London stage at the [[Empire, Leicester Square\|Empire Theatre]] in October 1914, as Montague Mayfair in ''By Jingo, If We Do—!'', a [[revue]] by [[Arthur Wimperis]] and Hartley Carrick with music by [[Herman Finck]]. ''[[The Observer]]'' said of him, "We have not, to our knowledge, seen Mr. Ralph Lynn before; but Mr. Lynn is a deceptive player. To begin with, you think he is going to be merely the usual [[wikt:knut\|'[k]nut']]. As the piece goes on he proves himself a true comedian."<ref>"By Jingo If We Do—!", ''The Observer'', 25 October 1914, p. 7</ref>		In 1900 Lynn made his stage debut at [[Wigan]] in ''The King of Terrors''.<ref name=times>"Mr Ralph Lynn", ''[[The Times]]'', 10 August 1962, p. 11</ref> He spent his first 14 years as an actor performing in the British provinces and in the United States; he appeared at the Colonial Theatre, New York, in May 1913, as Algy Slowman in a revival of ''The Purple Lady''.<ref name=who>Parker, p. 595</ref> He made his first appearance on the London stage at the [[Empire, Leicester Square\|Empire Theatre]] in October 1914, as Montague Mayfair in ''By Jingo, If We Do—!'', a [[revue]] by [[Arthur Wimperis]] and Hartley Carrick with music by [[Herman Finck]]. ''[[The Observer]]'' said of him, "We have not, to our knowledge, seen Mr. Ralph Lynn before; but Mr. Lynn is a deceptive player. To begin with, you think he is going to be merely the usual [[wikt:knut\|'[k]nut']]. As the piece goes on he proves himself a true comedian."<ref>"By Jingo If We Do—!", ''The Observer'', 25 October 1914, p. 7</ref>

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External links

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	==External links==		==External links==
	*{{IMDb name\|0528785}}		*{{IMDb name\|0528785}}

	~~{{authority control}}~~

	{{DEFAULTSORT:Lynn, Ralph}}		{{DEFAULTSORT:Lynn, Ralph}}

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Family

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{{short description|English actor (1882-1962)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2016}}
[[File:Ralph-lynn.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1|Lynn in the early 1930s]]
'''Ralph Clifford Lynn''' (8 March 1882 – 8 August 1962) was an English actor who had a 60-year career, and is best remembered for playing comedy parts in the [[Aldwych farce]]s first on stage and then in film.

Lynn became an actor at the age of 18 and very soon began to be cast in [[wikt:knut|knut]] or "silly ass" roles. He played such parts as a supporting actor for more than two decades until 1922, when he was cast in the lead of a new [[West End theatre|West End]] farce, ''[[Tons of Money (play)|Tons of Money]]'', in which he achieved immediate stardom. After the success of this play, its co-producer, the actor-manager [[Tom Walls]], leased the [[Aldwych Theatre]] in London, where for the next ten years he and Lynn co-starred in a series of successful farces, most of which were written for them by [[Ben Travers]].

Many of the Aldwych farces were made into films starring Lynn and Walls, and the two were ranked among the most popular British film actors of the 1930s. He continued his stage career during and after the Second World War, scoring another hit in London and on tour with ''[[Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary? (play)|Is your Honeymoon Really Necessary?]]'' (1944). He continued to play in both new works by Travers and others, and in revivals of his earlier successes, and made his last London appearance in 1958.

==Life and career==
Lynn was born in [[Hundred of Salford|Salford]], [[Lancashire]], the son of Gordon James Lynn, an insurance manager, and his wife, Janet ''née'' Thomas.<ref name=dnb>Morley, Sheridan. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37702 "Lynn, Ralph Clifford (1882–1962)"], ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition, January 2011, accessed 10 February 2013 {{ODNBsub}}</ref>

In 1900 Lynn made his stage debut at [[Wigan]] in ''The King of Terrors''.<ref name=times>"Mr Ralph Lynn", ''[[The Times]]'', 10 August 1962, p. 11</ref> He spent his first 14 years as an actor performing in the British provinces and in the United States; he appeared at the Colonial Theatre, New York, in May 1913, as Algy Slowman in a revival of ''The Purple Lady''.<ref name=who>Parker, p. 595</ref> He made his first appearance on the London stage at the [[Empire, Leicester Square|Empire Theatre]] in October 1914, as Montague Mayfair in ''By Jingo, If We Do—!'', a [[revue]] by [[Arthur Wimperis]] and Hartley Carrick with music by [[Herman Finck]]. ''[[The Observer]]'' said of him, "We have not, to our knowledge, seen Mr. Ralph Lynn before; but Mr. Lynn is a deceptive player. To begin with, you think he is going to be merely the usual [[wikt:knut|'[k]nut']]. As the piece goes on he proves himself a true comedian."<ref>"By Jingo If We Do—!", ''The Observer'', 25 October 1914, p. 7</ref>

In 1920 Lynn married the actress Gladys Miles; they had a son and a daughter. He continued his theatre career in mostly "silly ass" supporting roles, in London and in the provinces, until he achieved stardom in 1922, when [[Leslie Henson]] and [[Tom Walls]] cast him in ''[[Tons of Money (play)|Tons of Money]]'', a farce by Will Evans and [[Arthur Valentine]], which ran for two years at the [[Shaftesbury Theatre]]. Lynn's character adopted three different personas during the play, all conniving to acquire and keep a large financial legacy. ''[[The Times]]'' commented:
{{quote|Mr Ralph Lynn achieves a great triumph in his triple character, and alike as himself, as a rough diamond from Mexico, and as a naughty curate, he is extremely amusing. He is hardly ever off the stage, and to him in a great measure the success of the play should be due.<ref>"Tons of Money", ''The Times'', 15 April 1922, p. 10</ref>|}}

Walls played a small role in the production, as did the young [[Robertson Hare]]. The critic [[Sheridan Morley]] wrote, "the team of Walls, Hare, and Lynn was thus created, one which was to stay together for the next eleven years."<ref name=dnb/>

===Aldwych farces===
{{Quote box |quoted=true |bgcolor=#FFFFF0 |salign=center | quote =I have never seen or heard of any actor in any field with such an instinctive and unerring gift of timing". | source = [[Ben Travers]]<ref name=t91>Travers, p. 91</ref>| align=right| width=25%}}
For their next production, ''[[It Pays to Advertise (play)|It Pays to Advertise]]'' (1924) by [[Roi Cooper Megrue]] and [[Walter Hackett]], the team of Walls, Hare and Lynn moved to the [[Aldwych Theatre]]. Most of their plays, which quickly came to be known as the [[Aldwych farce]]s, were written by [[Ben Travers]]. At first he was wary about Lynn, thinking his "silly ass" persona unsuited to the conscientious and on the whole sensible character he was to play in the first of Travers's Aldwych farces.<ref name=t88/> He was also concerned that in rehearsal Lynn ad-libbed too much. But Travers quickly changed his mind and concluded that Lynn was "the greatest farce actor of our time";<ref name=t88>Travers, p. 88</ref> the ad-libbing diminished as Travers came to anticipate and include in his scripts "the sort of thing Ralph himself would have said in the circumstances".<ref name=t91/>

Over the next ten years there were twelve Aldwych farces, occupying the theatre continuously, in all of which Lynn starred. Travers, who wrote all but three of them, had occasional difficulties with Walls, whose professional discipline left something to be desired, but he found Lynn to be the ultimate professional:
{{quote|He was never satisfied as long as there was a single line in any of his scenes which wasn't right. All through the run of a farce he would worry and experiment until he got the thing to his liking. In those moments, there were none of the waggeries and wisecracks of his leisure hours; we were concentrating on the solemn problems of creating laughter. Nobody ever appreciated so well as Ralph how intensely serious is the job of being funny.<ref>Travers, p. 94</ref>|}}

Lynn first appeared in films in 1929 in ''Peace and Quiet'', a short filmed excerpt of a [[Ronald Jeans]] revue. In 1930 he made his first full-length film, ''Rookery Nook'', an adaptation of the Aldwych farce [[Rookery Nook (play)|of the same name]], directed by Walls, with the same cast as the stage production. Further filmed versions of the farces followed: ''[[Plunder (1931 film)|Plunder]]'' (1931), ''Thark'' (1932), ''A Cuckoo in the Nest'' (1933)<ref>"Ralph Lynn and Tom Walls in A Cuckoo in the Nest", ''Evening Telegraph'', 27 March 1934, p. 2</ref> ''[[Turkey Time (1933 film)|Turkey Time]]'' (1933), ''[[A Cup of Kindness (film)|A Cup of Kindness]]'' (1934) and ''[[Dirty Work (1934 film)|Dirty Work]]'' (1934). Travers also wrote some original screen plays for the team, such as ''[[Foreign Affaires]]'' (1935) and ''[[Pot Luck (1936 film)|Pot Luck]]'' (1936 – loosely based on ''On Such a Night''); he also adapted the works of others: ''[[Just My Luck (1933 film)|Just My Luck]]'' (1933, from a play by [[H. F. Maltby]]) and ''[[Summer Lightning (film)|Summer Lightning]]'' (1933, from [[P. G. Wodehouse]]'s novel of the [[Summer Lightning|same name]]). Other films starring Lynn included ''[[In the Soup (1936 film)|In the Soup]]'' (1936) and ''[[All In (film)|All In]]'' (1936). In the first half of the 1930s, Lynn and Walls regularly appeared in the lists of the top ten British film stars. Walls usually outranked Lynn in the top ratings, because, in the words of the critic Jeffrey Richards, "everyone warmed to the old reprobate [Walls] whereas the 'silly ass' was not to everyone's taste."<ref>Richards, pp. 101–02</ref>

===Later years===
He appeared at Aldwych in [[Vernon Sylvaine]]'s 1940 farce ''[[Nap Hand (play)|Nap Hand]]''. Lynn's last big hit play was ''[[Is Your Honeymoon Really Necessary? (play)|Is your Honeymoon Really Necessary?]]'' by E. Vivian Tidmarsh (1944), of which he was producer as well as star. It ran in London for more than two years and for two more years on tour.<ref name=dnb/> After the Second World War, by which time Walls was dead, Lynn teamed up again with Robertson Hare for two more Travers farces, ''Outrageous Fortune'' (1947) and ''[[Wild Horses (play)|Wild Horses]]'' (1952), which were successful without being smash hits.<ref name=dnb/> In 1954 he starred with Hare in ''[[The Party Spirit]]'', at the [[Piccadilly Theatre]].<ref name=times/> Lynn successfully toured the provinces in revivals of his earlier London farces until the last few years of his life.<ref name=times/> His last London performance was in 1958.<ref name=dnb/>

Lynn died in Surrey in 1962 at the age of 80.<ref name=times/>

===Family===
Lynn's elder brother, Sydney, professionally known as [[Gordon James (actor)|Gordon James]],<ref>"Early Days of Ralph Lynn", ''Evening Telegraph'', 29 December 1932, p. 2</ref> was also an actor; the brothers frequently appeared together on stage and on screen. Their younger brother Hastings Lynn became known for playing Ralph's original roles in Australia and New Zealand.<ref>"Criterion – A Cuckoo In The Nest", ''[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]'', 31 December 1927, p. 7; "Rookery Nook", ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', 21 April 1928, p. 12; "Criterion – Thark", ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', 2 June 1928, p. 10; and "Stage Jottings", ''[[Auckland Star]]'', Volume LIX, Issue 201, 25 August 1928, p. 2</ref>

His grand niece was the actress [[Ann Lynn]].

==Filmography==
* ''[[Rookery Nook (film)|Rookery Nook]]'' (1930)
* ''[[Tons of Money (1930 film)|Tons of Money]]'' (1930)
* ''[[Plunder (1931 film)|Plunder]]'' (1931)
* ''[[Mischief (1931 film)|Mischief]]'' (1931)
* ''[[The Chance of a Night Time]]'' (1931)
* ''[[A Night Like This (film)|A Night Like This]]'' (1932)
* ''[[Thark (film)|Thark]]'' (1932)
* ''[[A Cuckoo in the Nest (film)|A Cuckoo in the Nest]]'' (1933)
* ''[[Summer Lightning (film)|Summer Lightning]]'' (1933)
* ''[[Turkey Time (1933 film)|Turkey Time]]'' (1933)
* ''[[Up to the Neck]]'' (1933)
* ''[[Just My Luck (1933 film)|Just My Luck]]'' (1933)
* ''[[Dirty Work (1934 film)|Dirty Work]]'' (1934)
* ''[[A Cup of Kindness (film)|A Cup of Kindness]]'' (1934)
* ''[[Fighting Stock]]'' (1935)
* ''[[Stormy Weather (1935 film)|Stormy Weather]]'' (1935)
* ''[[Foreign Affaires]]'' (1935)
* ''[[All In (film)|All In]]'' (1936)
* ''[[Pot Luck (1936 film)|Pot Luck]]'' (1936)
* ''[[In the Soup (1936 film)|In the Soup]]'' (1936)
* ''[[For Valour (1937 film)|For Valour]]'' (1937)

== Notes==
{{reflist|2}}

==References==
* {{cite book | first=Jeffrey|last=Richards|chapter=Crisis at Christmas|editor= Mark Connelly| year= 2001| title= Christmas at the Movies: Images of Christmas in American, British and European Cinema | location=London| publisher= Tauris | isbn= 1860643973}}
* {{cite book | editor-last= Parker | editor-first= John| year= 1926| title= Who's Who in the Theatre |edition=4th| location= London and New York | publisher= Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons | oclc= 659887309}}
* {{cite book | last=Travers | first=Ben | year=1978 | title=A-sitting on a Gate | location=London | publisher= W H Allen| isbn= 0491022751 }}

==External links==
*{{IMDb name|0528785}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lynn, Ralph}}
[[Category:Male actors from Manchester]]
[[Category:1882 births]]
[[Category:1962 deaths]]
[[Category:English male film actors]]
[[Category:English male stage actors]]
[[Category:20th-century English male actors]]