Seymour Hicks was a renowned actor and theatrical impresario who flourished from the late 19th century to the 1930s. He is best remembered for his iconic portrayal of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol".
Born on January 30, 1871, on the Isle of Jersey, Hicks began his professional career at the age of sixteen. He became a musical-comedy star in London in 1894 with "The Shop Girl", followed by "The Circus Girl" (1896) and "A Runaway Girl" (1898),which co-starred his wife Ellaline Terriss, whom he married in 1893.
After the turn of the century, Hicks started writing musical comedies that he and his wife appeared in, which were met with great success. With his earnings, he built the Aldwych Theatre in 1905 and the Seymour Hicks Theatre in 1906. The first production at the Aldwych, his own musical comedy "The Beauty of Bath", was a hit.
Hicks was also instrumental in "discovering" the young Alfred Hitchcock. When the director Hugh Croise walked off the set of the 1923 short film "Always Tell Your Wife", Hicks enlisted Hitchcock to finish directing it, which was Hitchcock's first film to be screened.
By the time of the "Always Tell Your Wife" movie, Hicks had successfully navigated the change in theatrical tastes brought about by the Great War. He had begun writing and appearing in light, escapist comedies and satiric farces. Many of the farces he put on in the 1920s were adapted from French plays.
Hicks first played the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in 1901, a role he would go on to appear in thousands of times on stage and make two movie versions of, including a silent film in 1913 and a talkie in 1935.
By the mid-'30s, Hicks was a well-established and highly respected actor and theatrical impresario. He became the 13th actor to be knighted in 1934 and was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French Republic in recognition of his services in promoting French theater in England.
Seymour Hicks died on April 6, 1949, at the age of 78, in Hampshire, England. He continued to appear on stage and in movies until the year before his death.
