Billie Ritchie

Billie Ritchie
Born William Hill.[1]
14 September 1878
Glasgow, Scotland
Died 6 July 1921
Los Angeles, California
Cause of death Cancer
Nationality Scottish
Spouse(s) Winifred Monroe
Children

Wyn Ritchie Evans

(23 December 1900 - 11 April 2003)
A Bold, Bad Breeze, (1916)

Billie Ritchie (14 September 1878 – 6 July 1921) was a Scottish comedian who first gained transatlantic fame as a performer for British music hall producer Fred Karno—this, a full decade before Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin took a similar career path. Ritchie is best recalled today for the silent comedy shorts he made between 1914 and 1920 for director/producer Henry Lehrman's L-KO Kompany and Fox Film Sunshine Comedy unit. Variations on Ritchie's "tramp" and "drunk" personae - which Ritchie had developed before and during his Karno years- were introduced to film audiences by Charlie Chaplin in such shorts as the Lehrman-directed Kid Auto Races at Venice (7 February 1914) and Mabel's Strange Predicament (9 February 1914). Ritchie, who - due to a series of on-set injuries, spent his final years relatively inactive- succumbed to stomach cancer in the summer of 1921.[2] Winifred Monroe, the comedian's widow, and one-time stage partner, wound up in the employ of Charlie Chaplin.[3] Wyn Ritchie, their daughter, was also a performer, and, in private life, the wife (of 55 years) of songwriter Ray Evans.

Notes

External links

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Billie Ritchie.

Accounts on work and life


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 6/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.