The Master of the Macabre by Russell Thorndike

The article suggests the corpse laid there for some time while '. The story goes, both were with the company in Spartanburg when a man was murdered on the street outside their hotel. Published in the Dymchurch Day of Syn programme from 1985 is an apocryphal biography of Thorndike that indicates it was during the period of touring with Ben Greet's theatre company, that Russell and his sister Sybil came up with the idea of Dr Syn. Syn character and entertaining audiences as Smee in ten revivals of Peter Pan, including the famous Scala Theatre version where Donald Sinden doubled the roles of Mr Darling and Captain Hook), he felt a deeper fulfilment in writing, which would include the later work The House of Jeffreys. Although Thorndike appeared on the stage over four decades (including playing his own Dr. He ended his film career in minor priest roles for Laurence Olivier in Hamlet (1948) and Richard III (1955). He played Macbeth (1922) in a silent version of the play opposite Sybil's Lady and also played leads in silent versions of other classic plays, including Scrooge (1923) as Old Ebenezer, and The School for Scandal (1923) as Sir Peter Teazle. In film, Thorndike's appearances were infrequent. In 1922 he was applauded for his performance in the first professional production of Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt at the Old Vic. Thorndike also acted with Sybil and her husband, Lewis Casson, in their touring repertory performing melodramas. He rejoined Ben Greet's theatre company and his sister at the Old Vic in 1916, where he played in Shakespeare's King John, Richard II, and King Lear. Russell was severely wounded at Gallipoli and discharged. His brother Frank, who once performed on stage, was killed in action.

He remained three-and-a-half years with the company, once giving three performances as Hamlet in three different versions of the text on the same day. They became students at Ben Greet's Academy and two years later accompanied fellow members of the company on a North American tour, which included New York City. ActingĪt his suggestion, both he and Sybil (who once aspired to be a concert pianist) tried acting as a career in 1903. Thorndike married Rosemary Dowson, a daughter of the well-known actress Rosina Filippi, in 1918. He was a student at the King's School, Rochester and at St George's School, Windsor Castle and a chorister of St George's Chapel, an experience he later recounted in his book Children of the Garter (1937). He was born in Rochester, Kent, where his father had recently become a canon at the cathedral.

The Master of the Macabre by Russell Thorndike