Cyril Ritchard

Legendary for his preening prancing delightfully playful villain Captain Hook on the awardwinning stage as well as TV opposite Americas musical treasure Mary Martin beloved musical star Cyril Ritchard had a vast career that would last six decades but Peter Pan would become his prime legacy Born in Australia just before the turn of the century he was educated at St Aloysius College and Sydney University wherein he slyly sidestepped a parentalguided career in medicine for entertainment participating in numerous college productions that quickly got him hooked He began professionally in the chorus line of The Royal Comic Opera Company and quickly progressed to juvenile leads A subsequent pairing with the alreadyestablished theatre actress Madge Elliott in 1918 proved successful and the musical twosome eventually married in 1935 Together they would go on to become known as The Musical Lunts by their acting peers performing in scores of plays and revues together Ritchard specialized in playing slick dandified villains in musical comedy and developed a potent reputation of being a man of many talents Not only directing and staging Broadways finest he became a renown performer of various operas and led many productions as such Shortly before his wifes death of bone cancer in 1955 Ritchard ventured into TV infamy by repeating his Tony and Donaldson awardwinning portrayal of Hook in Peter Pan 1955 He continued to earn acclaim andor honors with such classic stage productions as Visit to a Small Planet Tonynominated The Pleasure of His Company Drama League award Tonynominated The Roar of the Greasepaintthe Smell of the Crowd Tonynominated A Midsummer Nights Dream and Sugar the musical version of the classic Billy Wilder film Some Like It Hot 1959 in which Ritchard played the Joe E Brown role Lesser regarded when it comes to film he performed in the early Hitchcock classic Blackmail 1929 and made his last movie with the musical Half a Sixpence 1967 with Tommy Steele While performing as the Narrator in a stage production of Side by Side by Sondheim in November 1977 Ritchard suffered a heart attack and died one month later A oneofakind talent his nefarious narcissistic humor was a career trademark that culminated in the role of a lifetime one that will certainly be enjoyed by children young and old for eons to come