Eric Lewis (actor)
[2] By 1880, Lewis had begun presenting comic musical sketches at the Royal Polytechnic Institution and St. George's Hall, where he sometimes took the place of the comedian Corney Grain.
[3] In 1881, he made his London stage debut in Herbert Beerbohm Tree's company at the Haymarket Theatre as Pilate Pump in Blue and Buff.
[8] Frustrated by his position as understudy to an actor who had hardly ever taken ill in four years, Lewis resigned from the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in January 1887.
[12] Lewis was soon performing in the West End of London at the Royalty Theatre in April 1887 in Ivy,[5] and in May in a comedy entitled A Tragedy.
[17] In July of that year, he was back at the Court Theatre starring with Mrs. John Wood, Cecil and Weedon Grossmith in Aunt Jack, a farce by Ralph Lumley.
[26] The same year, during the run of A French Maid at Terry's Theatre, he played in a series of matinees consisting of short musicals for children by Basil Hood and Walter Slaughter.
The Times described him as "well-nigh indispensable to light comedy for the role of the elderly gentleman of breeding, with a streak of affable eccentricity in his nature."
His comfortable physique, his lovable mannerisms, his worried look, his affectation of aggrieved pomposity, his ludicrous vocal shades ranging from mellow nonchalance to shrill querulousness, above all, his wonderful rolling eyes – all these characteristics exuded unctuousness, and even in the recesses of memory provoke the thoughts to laughter.... His quaint personality was as familiar as it was welcome.
[1]Lewis was praised for his performances at the Criterion Theatre in the revival of another Marshall play, His Excellency the Governor,[31] and in Carton's Lady Huntworth's Experiment.
[32] In 1905, at St. James's Theatre, Lewis received more good notices as a cynical old busybody in the title role of Mollentrave on Women by Alfred Sutro.
"[39] His last role that year was the fashionable Sir Ralph Bloomfield Bonington in The Doctor's Dilemma at the Royal Court Theatre.
[45] In 1908, he continued to receive praise, starring in The Admirable Crichton at the Duke of York's Theatre[46] and again as a judge in Lady Epping's Lawsuit at the Criterion.
[59] In 1915, Lewis briefly returned to song and dance, supporting Gaby Deslys in a revue written for her by J. M. Barrie, Rosy Rapture at the Duke of York's.
[62] In 1917, he was featured in The Double Event by Sydney Blow and Douglas Hoare at The Queen's Theatre[63] and H. V. Esmond's Salad Days at the London Pavilion.
[64] The next year, he played in Monica's Blue Boy by Arthur Wing Pinero at the New Theatre[65] and The Man from Toronto by Douglas Murray at the Royalty.
The Times wrote that "Lewis, sterling actor that he is, gave the impression last night that he had been playing in musical comedy all his life.
[74] In 1924 Lewis appeared in Kate at the Kingsway Theatre, together with Nellie Briercliffe,[75] and starred in The Other Mr. Gibbs, by Will Evans and Guy Reeves, at the Garrick.
[76] Lewis continued to perform until 1925, appearing in the films Brown Sugar (1922) as the Earl of Knightsbridge, and as Sir Anthony Fenwick in The Happy Ending (1925), which starred Fay Compton and Jack Buchanan.
