Cyril Ritchard

Cyril Ritchard

Legendary for his preening, prancing, delightfully playful villain Captain Hook on the award-winning stage (as well as TV) opposite America's musical treasure Mary Martin, beloved musical star Cyril Ritchard had a vast career that would last six decades, but "Peter Pan" would become his prime legacy. Born in Australia just before the turn of the century, he was educated at St. Aloysius College and Sydney University wherein he slyly sidestepped a parental-guided career in medicine for entertainment, participating in numerous college productions that quickly got him "hooked." He began professionally in the chorus line of The Royal Comic Opera Company and quickly progressed to juvenile leads. A subsequent pairing with the already-established theatre actress Madge Elliott in 1918 proved successful, and the musical twosome eventually married in 1935. Together they would go on to become known as "The Musical Lunts" by their acting peers performing in scores of plays and revues together. Ritchard specialized in playing slick, dandified villains in musical comedy and developed a potent reputation of being a man of many talents. Not only directing and staging Broadway's finest, he became a renown performer of various operas and led many productions as such. Shortly before his wife's death of bone cancer in 1955, Ritchard ventured into TV infamy by repeating his Tony and Donaldson award-winning portrayal of Hook in Peter Pan (1955). He continued to earn acclaim and/or honors with such classic stage productions as "Visit to a Small Planet" (Tony-nominated), "The Pleasure of His Company" (Drama League award, Tony-nominated), "The Roar of the Greasepaint...the Smell of the Crowd" (Tony-nominated), "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Sugar," the musical version of the classic Billy Wilder film Some Like It Hot (1959) in which Ritchard played the Joe E. Brown role. Lesser regarded when it comes to film, he performed in the early Hitchcock classic Blackmail (1929) and made his last movie with the musical Half a Sixpence (1967) with Tommy Steele. While performing as the Narrator in a stage production of "Side by Side by Sondheim" in November 1977, Ritchard suffered a heart attack and died one month later. A one-of-a-kind talent, his nefarious, narcissistic humor was a career trademark that culminated in the role of a lifetime -- one that will certainly be enjoyed by children young and old for eons to come.
Known For: Acting
Birthday: 1897-12-01
Place of Birth:
Also Known As: Cyrill Ritchard, Cyril Joseph Trimnell-Ritchard

Movies List of Cyril Ritchard

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Blackmail

1929 Movie
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The Hobbit

1977 Movie
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Piccadilly

1929 Movie
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Peter Pan

1960 Movie
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Hans Brinker

1969 Movie
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The Show Goes On

1937 Movie
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The Daydreamer

1966 Movie
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Half a Sixpence

1967 Movie
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Service for Ladies

1932 Movie
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Tubby the Tuba

1975 Movie
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I See Ice

1938 Movie
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Peter Pan

1955 Movie
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The Winslow Boy

1948 Movie
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Dangerous Medicine

1938 Movie
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Mr. Scrooge

1964 Movie
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Just for a Song

1930 Movie
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Symphony in Two Flats

1930 Movie
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Pontius Pilate

1952 Movie
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The Christmas Tree

1958 Movie
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Peter Pan

1956 Movie
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Aladdin

1958 Movie
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Dearest Enemy

1955 Movie
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Woman Hater

1948 Movie