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thumb|Bourchier in 1896
Arthur Bourchier (22 June 186314 September 1927) was an English actor and theatre manager. He married and later divorced the actress Violet Vanbrugh.
Bourchier was noted for roles both in classical drama, particularly Shakespeare, and in contemporary plays, including works by W. S. Gilbert, Anthony Hope, Arthur Wing Pinero and Alfred Sutro. He managed several West End theatres during his career, including the Royalty, the Criterion, the Garrick (for a total of eight years), His Majesty's and the Strand.
In his later years Bourchier became active in British politics as a member of the Labour Party.
Biography
Bourchier was born in Speen, Berkshire, England. He was the only son of Fanny (née Farr) and Captain Charles John Bourchier. He was educated at Eton, where he played cricket, and at Oxford University, chiefly at Christ Church. At Oxford he acted with an amateur group called the Philothespian Society, with whom he played Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. With the encouragement of the Vice-Chancellor, Benjamin Jowett, Bourchier founded the Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS), which succeeded the Philothespians. With the OUDS, Bourchier played Hotspur, Falstaff, Feste, Thanatos (in Alcestis), and Brutus to the Caesar of H. B. Irving.
Early career
Bourchier's first professional appearance was with Lillie Langtry in 1889, as Jaques in As You Like It. He also acted with Charles Wyndham at the Criterion Theatre and travelled to America to appear with Augustin Daly's company, for whom he later played the part of Robin Hood in Tennyson's The Foresters at its London premiere.
left|thumb|250px|Royal Command Performance, 1905
In 1895, Bourchier became lessee of the Royalty Theatre, and Violet Vanbrugh became his leading lady in many productions, including The Chili Widow (an adaptation of his own, which ran for over 300 nights), Mr and Mrs, Monsieur de Paris and The Queen's Proctor. Bourchier, Vanbrugh and her sister Irene toured America beginning in 1897. Returning to England, Vanbrugh played the title role in Teresa, which he produced at the Metropole. Their production of The Walls of Jericho by Alfred Sutro, in 1904, ran for a very successful 423 performances. In 1913, Bourchier and Vanbrugh produced their own movie in Germany of scenes from Macbeth. In 1916 he again played Brutus in Julius Caesar, at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, for the Shakespeare tercentenary with Frank Benson as Caesar, H. B. Irving as Cassius and Ainley as Antony. The same year, Bourchier took over management of His Majesty's. In 1917, he created the part of Bruce Bairnsfather's "Old Bill" in a stage adaptation called The Better 'Ole at the Oxford Music Hall, where it ran for over 800 performances. They toured together in 1916 but then separated and finally divorced in 1918. Bourchier remarried a much younger actress, Violet Marion Kyrle Bellew in 1918, Bourchier managed the Strand Theatre from 1919 to 1923. There, in 1922, he appeared as Long John Silver in J. B. Fagan's adaptation of Treasure Island. He toured with the play in 1923, and brought it back to the Strand the following year. In the last year of his life Bourchier embarked on a tour of South Africa. His departure was marked by a luncheon at Claridge's at which he was presented with a bronze bust of himself commissioned by old members of the OUDS in recognition of his work in founding and later subsidising the society.
Bourchier became ill in South Africa and died of pneumonia in Johannesburg in 1927 at the age of 64. The Times said, "Never a great actor, he was nevertheless always a conspicuous figure in the theatrical world. He brought to his work an enthusiasm for the stage which gave to performances not artistically distinguished a curious effect of personal distinction.... Sometimes his interpretations seemed to be misguided and his methods extravagantly theatrical, but here at least was an actor who was never colourless and, therefore, seldom dull." Gilbert said of Bourchier's Hamlet, "At last we can settle whether Bacon or Shakespeare wrote the plays. Have the coffins opened and whichever has turned in his grave is the author."
Notes
References
- Pearson, Hesketh. Gilbert and Sullivan, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1950