In his early years he was a member of the companies of the actor-managers George Alexander, Ben Greet, John Martin-Harvey and Johnston Forbes-Robertson.

[2] He made his professional stage debut in April 1894 in George Alexander's company at the St James's Theatre, London, in The Masqueraders by Henry Arthur Jones.

[3] In his early career he appeared under his real name, and as Frank Dyall he played a servant in Alexander's production of Henry James's Guy Domville in January 1895[4] and created the role of Merriman in The Importance of Being Earnest the following month.

[16] After returning to London he appeared with Martin-Harvey at His Majesty's in 1916, as Laertes in Hamlet, Lucentio in The Taming of the Shrew, Richmond in Richard III, and the Duke of Exeter in Henry V.[7] In 1918, in partnership with the actress Mary Merrall, he ran the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, for the summer season.

Between these his appearances ranged from grand guignol (1922), to another Ibsen lead (Solness in The Master Builder (1931) as well as swashbuckling roles such as Duke Michael in The Prisoner of Zenda and Captain Hook in Peter Pan (both 1923).

He toured in 1943, in The Strange Case of Margaret Wishart, and was back in the West End later that year as Vasin in The Russians at the Playhouse, and, in the Christmas season, the Caterpillar and the King of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland at the Scala.

[n 3] When television resumed after wartime suspension Dyall once again made two live broadcasts in The Ringer, and in the late 1940s he played a wide range of parts on radio, including John Gabriel Borkman, the Dream Chronicler in A Yank at the Court of King Arthur, Joseph Haydn in Papa Haydn, Anselm in The Miser, Jaggers in Great Expectations, Don Fernando in Henry de Montherlant's The Master of Santiago and, his final role, Gardiner, the Lord Chancellor, in Tyrone Guthrie's adaptation of Tennyson's Queen Mary, broadcast in July 1950 after his death.