Richard Waring

For the British comedy writer, see Richard Waring (writer).

Richard Waring
File:RichardWaring.jpg
Born	Richard Stephens (1910-05-27)27 May 1910 Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
Died	City Island, Bronx, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor

Richard Waring (27 May 1910 – 18 January 1993) was an English-born American actor. He appeared on film, stage and television.

Born Richard Stephens in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, the son of Thomas E. Stephens, a painter, whose portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower hangs in the Smithsonian Gallery of Presidents. He later adopted his mother (Evelyn M. Stephens)'s maiden name, Waring, as his stage name.

Waring began his career in 1931 with Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theater in New York City in minor roles in Romeo and Juliet, Camille, and Cradle Song. In 1940 he played opposite Ethel Barrymore in The Corn is Green and later with Eva Le Gallienne and was signed to play the role in Hollywood opposite Bette Davis, but entered the army during World War II. Before that he was filmed in his best-known screen role in Mr. Skeffington (1944) as Fanny Trellis' brother Trippy.

After his war service he appeared on Broadway as the Duke of Buckingham in Henry VIII, John Shand in J. M. Barrie's What Every Woman Knows and as the Captain in George Bernard Shaw's, Androcles and the Lion.

He also appeared in many performances of the American Shakespeare Festival directed by John Houseman and at the Phoenix Theatre in New York City, playing both bit roles and major parts in many of Shakespeare's plays. He played opposite Katharine Hepburn in The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, and one performance in A Midsummer Night's Dream as Oberon before she had to leave the production.

Personal life

Waring married American actress Florida Friebus in 1934. They had one child who died in infancy. The couple divorced in 1952. Waring and his second wife, Kathy, had no children.

Waring was the brother of Peter John Stephens, a playwright and author.

Death

Waring died of a heart attack on 18 January 1993 in City Island, Bronx, New York at the age of 82.

Broadway productions

• Dear Jane (1932)
• L'Aiglon (1934)
• The Women Have Their Way (1935)
• Camille (1935)
• The Corn is Green (1940)
• At the Stroke of Eight (1940)
• The Man Who Killed Lincoln (1940; revived the character of John Wilkes Booth in Edwin Booth in 1958)
• The Mad Hatter in Eva Le Gallienne's production of Alice in Wonderland (1947)
• A Pound on Demand (1947)
• Androcles and the Lion (1947)
• What Every Woman Knows (1947)
• King Henry VIII (1947)
• Gramercy Ghost (1951)
• Portrait of a Queen (1968)

Radio Broadcasts

• Elizabeth the Queen (1952)
• Second Husband (in the role of Grant Cummings)

TV Broadcasts

• Studio One
• Wuthering Heights (1948)
• Hallmark Hall of Fame: MacDuff in Macbeth (1954) with Maurice Evans and Judith Anderson
• Kiss Me Again, Stranger (1953)
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Season 3 Episode: 31 Festive Season (1958)
• Hallmark Hall of Fame: Bertrand in Eagle in a Cage with Trevor Howard as Napoleon (1965)

Records

• Scenes from Romeo and Juliet with Eva Le Gallienne (Atlantic Records, 1951; 2 record set)
• Poems of Rupert Brooke (Folkways Records, Smithsonian Collection)

References

Obituaries

• The New York Times, January 21, 1993, by William Honan
• The Guardian, February 1, 1993
• Los Angeles Times (Record edition) Jan 23, 1993

External links

• Richard Waring at the Internet Movie Database
• Mr. Skeffington trailer, imdb.com/video
• Poems of Rupert Brooke, folkways.si.edu