[1] Tearle was born on May 17, 1878, in New York City, the son of the well-known British-born cornetist Jules Levy and American actress Marianne “Minnie” Conway.

His big break came at the age of twenty-one when in Manchester, England, without any preparation, he was called upon to play Hamlet after the lead actor took ill just prior to the first act.

[7] Tearle's performance that night led to his first appearance on the London stage playing the Viscomte de Chauvin, the lead role in The Queen's Double, on April 27, 1901, at the Garrick Theatre.

[1] His first film was The Nightingale, a story by Augustus Thomas about a slum girl (Ethel Barrymore) who rose to be a great opera star.

Roberta's name had earlier appeared in print as a co-respondent in a divorce suit filed by the wife of John Jacob Astor.

[13][14] Tearle's third wife, Roberta Hill, filed for a divorce in 1916 after detectives she hired found him in a hotel room with Adele Rowland, a musical-comedy actress and singer.

Cormack wanted to replace him, but the producer, Anne Nichols, said the fault lay with the character and insisted the part needed to be reshaped and rewritten.

The play was scheduled to open on Broadway at the Vanderbilt Theatre, but closed after one week in Washington, D.C., due in part to Tearle's declining health.