Cuyler Hastings (c. 1864 – 10 January 1914) was an American stage actor, remembered for his portrayal of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes.
History
Australia
In 1902 Hastings was contracted by J. C. Williamson's to play the Holmes character on stage in Melbourne and Sydney — he would sail from San Francisco on 14 August 1902. Williamson already had Harry Plimmer, an Australian actor, playing the part to such business that his season in Perth was being extended, and Hastings could open in Melbourne in mid-September, with Sydney following a month later.
He arrived in Sydney by the ''Sierra'' on 5 September, and opened in Melbourne with '' Sherlock Holmes — The Strange Case of Miss Faulkner'' by
William Gillette
William Hooker Gillette (July 24, 1853 – April 29, 1937) was an American actor-manager, playwright, and stage-manager in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best remembered for portraying Sherlock Holmes on stage and in a 1916 ...
, based on the work of
Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...
Cuyler Hastings is a magnetic actor. He equally compels attention and admiration. Impossible to take the eyes away from him for a moment. . . In appearance Mr. Hastings is tall, slight, handsome, from an intellectual standard, and so dark-complexioned as to make his grave, thoughtful face extremely melancholy. When he sits, as he has a habit of doing, with half-closed eyes and lips severely set, his face is one of extreme gloom. Even his smile has little mirth. In this probably is his facial resemblance to the Sherlock
Holmes of Conan Doyle.
He also played
*The butler Crichton in
J. M. Barrie
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, (; 9 May 1860 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several succ ...
's ''
The Admirable Crichton
''The Admirable Crichton'' is a comic stage play written in 1902 by J. M. Barrie.
Origins
Barrie took the title from the sobriquet of a fellow Scot, the polymath James Crichton, a 16th-century genius and athlete. The epigram-loving Ernest is p ...
The Light That Failed
''The Light That Failed'' is the first novel by the Nobel Prize-winning English author Rudyard Kipling, first published in ''Lippincott's Monthly Magazine'' in January 1891. Most of the novel is set in London, but many important events through ...
''
He was reportedly less than memorable as Francois Villon in
Justin Huntly McCarthy
Justin Huntly McCarthy (1859 – 20 March 1936) was an Irish author, historian, and nationalist politician. He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1884 to 1892, taking his seat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
He was the son of ...
's ''
If I Were King
''If I Were King'' is a 1938 American biographical and historical film starring Ronald Colman as medieval poet François Villon, and featuring Basil Rathbone and Frances Dee. It is based on the 1901 play and novel, both of the same name, by Just ...
''
While in Australia he became a friend of journalist
Eugenia Stone
Eugenia Bertuance Stone (c. 1874 – 20 June 1934), in later life referred to as Eugenia, Lady Doughty, was an Australian journalist, later the wife and widow of Sir George Doughty.
History
Stone was born in Melbourne of Irish Catholic ancestry, ...
He played the reform candidate "Matthew Standish" in the New York production of William C. De Mille's play '' The Woman''.
Death
He killed himself by pistol shot in his room on Fourth Avenue, NYC. He had recently suffered an attack of partial paralysis, coupled with some financial setback which, it was speculated, may have contributed to his urge to suicide.
By his will, executed at The Players club on 3 December 1913, he left the bulk of his estimated $25,000 estate to a half-brother George W. Hastings (a lawyer in Toronto) and a half-sister Anna Garrett Munro. Also mentioned was $1,000 to Marion Irene Vivers of New South Wales, for whom he was also holding some stocks and shares. An article written in 1914 asserts that this beneficiary was a love interest.