In 1906 he had his first Shakespeare roles: Robin in The Merry Wives of Windsor and Mamillius in The Winter's Tale; later in the year he went to Manchester to play Michael in Peter Pan.

[1] In September 1908 Tonge was cast as Freddy in The Sway Boat at the Kingsway Theatre, London,[1] and in December of the same year he had the important role of Tommy in Tree's Christmas family play, Pinkie and the Fairies.

The reviewer in The Times called Tonge "a remarkable boy" and commented, "Nothing more natural and more accompllshed than this youngster in an Eton jacket could be imagined, and the piece is well worth seeing for his amusing performance alone.

[1] He gave further Broadway performances as Robert Langworthy in Gamblers All (1917), Murty in The Grasshopper (1917), Roger in The New Word (1917), Peter in Peter's Mother (1918), Willis Ainley in Smilin' Through (1919), Secretary in Bluebeard's Eighth Wife (1921) and Lord Kinlock in The Bunch and Judy (1922), His final Broadway appearances of the 1920s were as Al Lavery in a crime thriller, Interference (1927) and Frank Oakes in a comedy, In Love With Love (1928).

[8] Tonge's next three Broadway roles were in comedies, as Ludlow in Ivor Novello's Fresh Fields (1936), the pompous headmaster, the Rev Edmund Ovington, in Ian Hay's Bachelor Born (1938) and Herbert Soppitt in J.

[8] In 1948 Coward once again cast Tonge in Broadway productions of his shows, this time in six of the short plays in the cycle Tonight at 8.30 with Gertrude Lawrence and Graham Payn in the principal roles.

On television, he played District Attorney Cortland in Perry Mason, Dr Robert Means in Dr. Hudson's Secret Journal (1955–57) and General Amherst in Northwest Passage (1958–59).