Jay Laurier

File:Scene from Tom Jones 1907.jpg and Dan Rolyat in Tom Jones (1907)]]

Laurier was born in 1879 in Birmingham in Warwickshire. He made his professional debut in Arabian Nights at the Abertillery Public Hall in 1896Obituary for Jay Laurier, The Stage, 17 April 1969, p. 17 before beginning a successful career touring the music halls of Britain.

As a music hall artiste he popularised such songs as "Ring O' Roses" and "I'm Always Doing Something Silly". From December 1906, he was in the pantomime Red Riding Hood at the New Theatre in Cardiff.[https://newspapers.library.wales/view/4171086/4171087 Public Amusements - Evening Express and Evening Mail], 24 December 1906, p. 1 His first performance on the legitimate stage was as Gregory in the comic opera Tom Jones in 1907.[https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/birmingham-born-actor-jay-laurier-as-gregory-in-the-comic-news-photo/3143097 Jay Laurier] on Getty Images Christmas 1907 saw him in the pantomime Mother Goose as Jack opposite the dame of Wilkie Bard at the Prince of Wales Theatre in Birmingham.Programme for Mother Goose (1907) - Prince of Wales Theatre, Birmingham- Glenn Christodoulou Theatre Collection] In 1922 he played Miffins in the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk at the Hippodrome, London opposite George Robey as Dame Trot.J. P. Wearing, [https://books.google.com/books?id=5vFEAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA136 The London Stage 1920–1929: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel], Rowman & Littlefield (2014) - Google Books p. 136 A Freemason, in 1919 he joined the Chelsea Lodge No 3098 the members of which were from the entertainment industry.[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/60620/43971_cl%5El%5Ekl%5E191021-00581?pid=513285&backurl=https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv%3D1%26dbid%3D60620%26h%3D513285%26tid%3D%26pid%3D%26usePUB%3Dtrue%26_phsrc%3Ddjv3421%26_phstart%3DsuccessSource&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=djv3421&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&_ga=2.150131190.1717337076.1589227109-1197399642.1515349816 England, United Grand Lodge of England Freemason Membership Registers, 1751–1921 for James Laurier: United Grand Lodge of England 1910–1921], Membership Registers: London K 2739-2946 to London L 2952-3162 - Ancestry.com {{subscription required}} Laurier was Meander in the musical comedy Phi-Phi at the London Pavilion (1922)Wearing, p.179 and Pamphylos in the operetta Cleopatra (an adaptation of Die Perlen der Cleopatra (1923) by Oscar Straus) opposite Evelyn Laye in the title role at Daly's Theatre (1925).Wearing, p. 368 He was in the British production of the musical Oh, Kay! at Her Majesty's Theatre (1927); was Rudolph the Reckless in the pantomime The Sleeping Beauty at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (1929–1930);[http://www.its-behind-you.com/drurylanepantos.html Cast of The Sleeping Beauty], Pantomimes at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, It's Behind You. Retrieved 14 May 2020 Nisch in The Merry Widow at the Hippodrome, London (1932),Programme for The Merry Widow (1932) - Glenn Christodoulou Theatre Collection and toured as Popoff in the latter show during 1936. During the 1930s and 40s he acted in a number of films.[https://web.archive.org/web/20190406212302/https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2ba4ed8513 Films of Jay Laurier] - British Film Institute Database

He joined the company of The Old Vic in 1937 for whom he played Alfred Doolittle in Pygmalion before joining the company of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1938 for whom he played Launce in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1938), Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1938 and 1942), Touchstone in As You Like It (1929–1942), First Gravedigger in Hamlet (1940 and 1942), Porter in Macbeth (1938 and 1942), Pompey in Measure for Measure (1939–1940), Gardener in Richard II (1941), Sir John Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor (1940), Autolycus in The Winter's Tale (1942), Christopher Sly The Taming of the Shrew (1939–1942), Stephano in The Tempest (1938–1942) and Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night (1941).[http://collections.shakespeare.org.uk/search/rsc-performances/twe194104 Jay Laurier in Twelfth Night (1941)], Royal Shakespeare Company. Retrieved 14 May 2020[http://collections.shakespeare.org.uk/search/rsc-performances/search/rsc_person:laurier-jay-70850/page/2#mnd193804 Roles of Jay Laurier (1938–1942)], Royal Shakespeare Company. Retrieved 14 May 2020 Laurier played Christopher Sly in The Taming of the Shrew,J. P. Wearing, [https://books.google.com/books?id=mreCBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA10 The London Stage 1940–1949: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel], Rowman & Littlefield (2014) - Google Books p. 10 Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night and Dogberry in Much Ado About NothingWearing, The London Stage 1940–1949, p. 8 in the Stratford Shakespeare season at the Kingsway Theatre in London. In 1945 he gave an acclaimed cameo performance as the jailer Frosch in Gay Rosalinda at the Palace Theatre in London. He reprised the role of Sir Toby Belch at the Savoy Theatre in London in 1947.Wearing, The London Stage 1940–1949, p. 303

In 1901, he married Elizabeth Mary Smith and with her had three children: Leslie James Chapman (born 1902), Sybil Constance Chapman (1903–04) and Marjorie Laurier Chapman (born 1908). They divorced in 1909 after he had abandoned her and his family to live with the married music hall performer Ouida MacDermott whose own husband divorced her in 1910 because of her adultery with Laurier.[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/2465/40243_636897_8639-00000/69541#?imageId=40243_636897_8639-00004 England & Wales, Civil Divorce Records, 1858-1918 (1910)], Ancestry.com {{subscription required}}[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/2352/rg14_06951_0197_03?pid=39710543&backurl=https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv%3D1%26dbid%3D2352%26h%3D39710543%26tid%3D%26pid%3D%26usePUB%3Dtrue%26_phsrc%3Ddjv3409%26_phstart%3DsuccessSource&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=djv3409&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&_ga=2.258642250.1717337076.1589227109-1197399642.1515349816 1911 England Census for Annie Louise M Macdermott]: Middlesex, Chiswick - Ancestry.com {{subscription required}} He married Muriel S. Griffin in 1932[https://www.ancestry.co.uk/interactive/8753/ons_m19321az-0581?pid=54475755&backurl=https://search.ancestry.co.uk/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv%3D1%26dbid%3D8753%26h%3D54475755%26tid%3D%26pid%3D%26usePUB%3Dtrue%26_phsrc%3Ddjv3416%26_phstart%3DsuccessSource&treeid=&personid=&hintid=&usePUB=true&_phsrc=djv3416&_phstart=successSource&usePUBJs=true&_ga=2.211481941.1717337076.1589227109-1197399642.1515349816 England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005], James A Laurier (1932) - Ancestry.com {{subscription required}} and Sybil Viney.

On retiring in 1956, Jay Laurier moved to Durban in South Africa, where he died in 1969, aged 90.

• Hobson's Choice (1931)
• Pyjamas Preferred (1932)
• I'll Stick to You (1933)
• Waltz Time (1933)
• The Black Tulip (1937)
• Oh Boy! (1938)
• The History of Mr. Polly (1949)

• {{IMDb name|0491423}}
• [https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp69502/jay-laurier Photograph of Jay Laurier] - National Portrait Gallery, London

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Category:1879 births

Category:1969 deaths

Category:English male film actors

Category:Male actors from Birmingham, West Midlands

Category:20th-century English male actors

Category:Royal Shakespeare Company members

Category:British male Shakespearean actors

Category:Freemasons of the United Grand Lodge of England