Frederick Hobson Leslie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Frederick Hobson Leslie (April 1, 1855 – December 7, 1892), English actor and singer and comic actor best known for starring in, and writing (under the pseudonym A. C. Torr, a pun on the word "actor"), numerous popular burlesques and other works of theatre.
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[edit] Career
Leslie was born in Woolwich, England. He made his first stage appearance in London as Colonel Hardy in Paul Pry in 1878. He had a good voice, and in 1882 he made a great hit as the title character in Rip Van Winkle, by Planquette's, at the Comedy Theatre. In 1882 and 1883 he played in America at the Casino Theatre and elsewhere in The Merry War and The Beggar Student.
In 1885 Leslie appeared at the Gaiety Theatre as Jonathan Wild in H. P. Stephens and W. Yardley's burlesque Little Jack Sheppard, with music by Meyer Lutz). Leslie's success in this part determined his subsequent career, and for some years he and Nellie Farren were the pillars of Gaiety Theatre burlesques. In 1887, his Miss Esmeralda was a particular success, while Frankenstein, or The Vampire's Victim, in which he played a monster in touch with his feminine side, was a flop. In 1888-89, Leslie, with Farren's company, toured in the U.S. and Australia, in Monte Cristo, Jr. and Miss Esmeralda (together with Sylvia Grey, Marion Hood and Letty Lind). In 1891, Leslie and Farren again toured Australia with the Gaiety company.
Leslie's Don Caesar de Bazan in Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué (1889, a take off of Victor Hugo’s play Ruy Blas), was perhaps the most popular of his later parts, and he and Farren toured in this production and in Miss Esmeralda and Cinder Ellen up too Late in Australia (with Sidney Jones) and elsewhere. Leslie's early death, coupled with Farren's illness and retirement in 1892, brought to an end the type of Gaiety burlesque associated with them, at the same time that Edwardian musical comedy came to dominate the London theatre.
Leslie was known for his versatility, agility, gifts of mimicry and entertaining personality.[1] Whether he sang (he was a baritone), danced, whistled or "gagged," his performance was noted for its flow of high spirits and ludicrous charm. Under the pseudonym of "A. C. Torr", he was acknowledged on the programmes as part-author of his burlesques (including, for example, Cinder Ellen up too Late, Don Juan and Miss Esmeralda), and while on occasion he acted in more serious comedy, his fame rests on his connection with the burlesques.
He died of typhoid fever in London at the age of 38.
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Vincent, W. T. Recollections of Fred Leslie (1894).
- New York Times obituary
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
