Russell Thorndike

Russell Thorndike
Born	(1885-02-06)6 February 1885 Rochester, Kent, England, UK
Died	London, England, UK

Arthur Russell Thorndike (6 February 1885, Rochester, Kent – 7 November 1972) was a British actor and novelist, best known for the Doctor Syn of Romney Marsh novels. Less well-known than his sister Sybil but equally versatile, Russell Thorndike's first love was writing and, after serving in World War I, he devoted himself to it.

He was born in Rochester, Kent, where his father had recently become a canon at the cathedral. He was a student at St George's School, Windsor Castle and a chorister of St George's Chapel, an experience he later recounted in his book Children of the Garter (1937). At his suggestion, both he and Sybil (who once aspired to be a concert pianist) tried acting as a career in 1903. They became students at Ben Greet's Academy and two years later accompanied fellow members of the company on a North American tour, which included New York. He remained three-and-a-half years with the company, once giving three performances as Hamlet in three different versions of the text on the same day. He also toured in South Africa and Asia.

Around this time he completed his first novel of romantic adventure on Romney Marsh entitled Doctor Syn: A Tale of the Romney Marsh. In 1914 he enlisted. His brother Frank, who once performed on stage, was killed in action. Russell was severely wounded at Gallipoli and discharged. He rejoined Ben Greet's theatre company and his sister at the Old Vic in 1916, where he played in Shakespeare's King John, Richard II, and King Lear. Thorndike also acted with Sybil and her husband, Lewis Casson, in their touring repertory performing melodramas. In 1922 he was applauded for his performance in the first professional production of Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt at the Old Vic.

Thorndike married Rosemary Dowson, a daughter of the well-known actress Rosina Filippi, in 1918.

In film, Thorndike's appearances were infrequent. He played Macbeth (1922) in a silent version of the play opposite Sybil's Lady and also played leads in silent versions of other classic plays, including Scrooge (1923) as Old Ebenezer, and The School for Scandal (1923) as Sir Peter Teazle. He ended his film career in minor priest roles for Laurence Olivier in Hamlet (1948) and Richard III (1955). Although Thorndike appeared on the stage over four decades (including playing his own Dr. Syn character and entertaining audiences as Smee in ten revivals of Peter Pan, including the famous Scala Theatre version where Donald Sinden doubled the roles of Mr Darling and Captain Hook), he felt a deeper fulfilment in writing, which would include the later work The House of Jeffreys.

Selected filmography

• The Fair Maid of Perth (1923)
• Human Desires (1924)
• Miriam Rozella (1924)
• The Roof (1933)
• Puppets of Fate (1933)
• A Shot in the Dark (1933)
• Whispering Tongues (1934)
• Henry V (1944)

Selected Writings

• Doctor Syn: A Tale of the Romney Marsh (1915)
• Doctor Syn on the High Seas (1935)
• Doctor Syn Returns (1936)
• Further Adventures of Doctor Syn (1936)
• Courageous Exploits of Doctor Syn (1938)
• Amazing Quest of Doctor Syn (1939)
• Shadow of Doctor Syn (1944)
• Children Of The Garter
• The House Of Jeffreys
• Jet And Ivory
• Herod's Peal
• The Vandekkers
• Sybil Thorndike
• The Master Of The Macabre (1946)

External links

• Russell Thorndike at the Internet Movie Database