William Hill, known professionally as Billie Ritchie (5 September 1874 – 6 July 1921), was a Scottish comedian who first gained transatlantic fame as a performer for British music hall producer

Fred Karno Frederick John Westcott (26 March 1866 – 17 September 1941), best known by his stage name Fred Karno, was an English theatre impresario of the British music hall. As a comedian of slapstick he is credited with popularising the custard-p ...

— thus, a full decade before

Stan Laurel Stan Laurel (born Arthur Stanley Jefferson; 16 June 1890 – 23 February 1965) was an English comic actor, writer, and film director who was one half of the comedy double act, duo Laurel and Hardy. He appeared with his comedy partner Oliver Ha ...

and

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...

took a similar career path. Ritchie is best recalled today for the

silent comedy Silent comedy is a style of film, related to but distinct from mime, invented to bring comedy into the medium of film in the silent film era (1900s–1920s) before a synchronized soundtrack which could include talking was technologically avai ...

shorts Shorts are a garment worn over the human pelvis, pelvic area, circling the waist and splitting to cover the upper part of the legs, sometimes extending down to the knees but not covering the entire length of the leg. They are called "shorts" b ...

he made between 1914 and 1920 for director/producer

Henry Lehrman Henry Lehrman (March 30, 1881 – November 7, 1946) was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. Lehrman was a very prominent figure of Hollywood's silent film era, working with such cinematic pioneers as D. W. Griffith and Mack S ...

L-KO Kompany The L-KO Kompany, or L-KO Komedies, was an American motion picture company founded by Henry Lehrman that produced silent one-, two- and very occasionally three-reel comedy shorts between 1914 and 1919. The initials L-KO stand for "Lehrman KnockOu ...

and Fox Film Sunshine Comedy unit.

Biography

Variations on Ritchie's "tramp" and "drunk" personae – which Ritchie claimed he had developed before and during his Karno years – were introduced to film audiences by

in such shorts as the Lehrman-directed '' Kid Auto Races at Venice'' (7 February 1914) and ''

Mabel's Strange Predicament ''Mabel's Strange Predicament'' is a 1914 American film starring Mabel Normand and Charles Chaplin, notable for being the first film for which Chaplin donned the costume of The Tramp, although his appearance in the costume in Kid Auto Races a ...

'' (9 February 1914). Ritchie, who, due to a series of on-set injuries, spent his final years relatively inactive, succumbed to

stomach cancer Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a cancer that develops from the lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a number of subtypes, including gastric adenocarcinomas. Lymph ...

in the summer of 1921. Winifred Frances, the comedian's widow, and one-time stage partner, wound up in the employ of Charlie Chaplin as a wardrobe mistress, showing there was no animosity between the two performers. Wyn Ritchie, their daughter, was also a performer, and, in private life, the wife (for 55 years) of songwriter

Ray Evans Raymond Bernard Evans (February 4, 1915 – February 15, 2007) was an American songwriter. He was a partner in a composing and song-writing duo with Jay Livingston, known for the songs they composed for films. Evans wrote the lyrics and Living ...

In popular culture

In 1918 Dutch illustrator David Bueno de Mesquita created a comic book about Ritchie named ''Billie Ritchie en Zijn Ezel'' (''Billie Ritchie and his Donkey''). This was the first celebrity comic in Dutch history.

Notes

References

External links

* * * * *
The Ray and Wyn Ritchie Evans Foundation Official Website

1874 births 1921 deaths Comedians from Glasgow Scottish male comedians 20th-century Scottish comedians British male comedy actors Scottish male film actors Scottish male silent film actors Scottish emigrants to the United States {{UK-comedian-stub