Cecil Raleigh

Cecil Raleigh (27 January 1856 – 10 November 1914, London, England) was an English actor and playwright.

He was the son of Dr John Fothergill Rowlands, and took the stage name of Raleigh. He played for a time in musical theatre, but deserted acting for playwriting and, either alone or in collaboration, produced melodramas, other plays and musical pieces, staged at first chiefly at the Comedy Theatre, London, and in later years at Drury Lane.

Cheer, Boys, Cheer (1895); Hearts are Trumps (1899); The Best of Friends (1902); and The Whip (1909–10) are typical examples of his plays, but he was particularly successful with his musical pieces, Little Christopher Columbus (1893), Dick Whittington and His Cat (1894), The Yashmak (1897) and The Sunshine Girl (1912).

Other

Several of his plays were later made into motion pictures. He acted as dramatic critic in two or three London papers, and became secretary to the School of Dramatic Art in Gower Street, London.

Personal life

Raleigh married Effie Adelaide Henderson (later Madame Albanesi, 1859 – 16 October 1936), a British novelist who published as Effie Adelaide Rowlands, whom he later divorced. He later married Saba Raleigh (1866–1923), an actress, with whom he remained married until his death in 1914.

Plays

Theatrical poster for The Great Ruby
  • The Whip, 1909, with Henry Hamilton, the basis for silent films of 1917 and 1928
  • Sporting Life, with Seymour Hicks, the basis for silent films of 1918 and 1925
  • Hearts Are Trumps, 1900, the basis for the 1920 silent film
  • The Marriages of Mayfair, the basis for the 1920 silent film The Fatal Hour
  • The Hope, with Hamilton, the basis for the 1920 silent film
  • The Best of Luck, with Hamilton and Arthur Collins, the basis for the 1920 silent film
  • The Derby Winner, co-written with Hamilton and Augustus Harris, 1895, was produced in the United States under the title The Sporting Duchess. It was the basis of silent films of the same names in 1915 and 1923
  • Cheer, Boys, Cheer, with Harris and Hamilton, 1895
  • The Sporting Duchess, the basis for silent films of 1915 and 1920
  • The White Heather, 1897, with Hamilton, the basis for the 1919 silent film The White Heather
  • The Sins of Society, 1909, with Hamilton, the basis for the 1915 silent film
  • The Great Ruby, 1898, with Hamilton, the basis for the 1915 silent film
  • The King's Minister, the basis for the 1914 silent film
  • The Best of Friends
  • The Price of Peace
  • The Grey Mare, with George Robert Sims
  • The Guardsman, with Sims
  • Stolen Orders, 1915, with Hamilton, turned into a motion picture in 1918

Musical theatre

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