Huntley Wright
Huntley Wright (7 August 1868 – 10 July 1941)[1][2] was an English stage and film actor, comedian, dancer and singer, best known for creating roles in many important Edwardian musical comedies.
Beginning in 1896, he spent ten years creating roles in some of the era's most popular musical comedies for George Edwardes at Daly's Theatre.
After this, he continued to play in comedies, musical theatre and drama, also broadcasting frequently on the radio and appearing in several films later in his career.
[11] After several more years playing a variety of roles on tour, including Danny Man in Dion Boucicault's The Colleen Bawn,[9] he again performed in London's West End in 1891 as Springe the birdcatcher in Fate and Fortune.
"[8] Wright performed and created characters in many of Edwardes's most famous musical comedies, including: The Geisha (1896, as Wun-Hi),[15] A Greek Slave (1898, as Heliodorus), San Toy (1899, as Li),[16] A Country Girl (1902, as Barry),[17] The Cingalee (1904, as Chambhuddy Ram), The Little Michus (1905, as Bagnolet)[8] and See-See (1906, as Hang-Kee).
The Times also said of this period of his career, "those who remember the neat, perky, birdlike little man in these musical comedies, with his precise diction and his finished movements, will quote to each other his drolleries, and hug his memory in unashamed, selfish, and inexhaustible enjoyment."
[32] Wright's later stage appearances included The Lady of the Rose (as Suitangi, 1922 and also a 1929 revival),[33] and Madame Pompadour (1923, as Joseph Calicot).
[9] In 1931 he played Gaspard in Les cloches de Corneville and was praised by The Manchester Guardian: "quite remarkable old-school acting ... a true stylist.
[37] Wright was an early and prolific exponent of broadcasting, making frequent radio appearances in operetta, plays and musical comedies on the BBC.
In October and November 1927, for example, he starred in complete transmissions of Miss Hook of Holland, The Cousin from Nowhere, and The Rose of Persia and he sustained a similar pattern of frequent broadcasting for the rest of his career.
