Aynesworth-and-Peile-Importance-of-Being-Earnest-1895

Frederick Kinsey Oman Peile (20 December 1861 –13 April 1934), known professionally as F.KinseyPeile or Kinsey Peile, was a British actor and playwright. During a forty-year stage career he created roles in plays by

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

and

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...

, starred in others by

Henrik Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential playw ...

and

Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...

, wrote ten plays for the West End and appeared in several films.

Life and career

Early years

Peile was born in

Allahabad Allahabad (), officially known as Prayagraj, also known as Ilahabad, is a metropolis in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.The other five cities were: Agra, Kanpur (Cawnpore), Lucknow, Meerut, and Varanasi (Benares). It is the administrat ...

, India on 20 December 1862, the second son of a British army officer, General Frederick Weston Peile (1828–1902), and his wife Sarah, ''née'' Oman (1829–1912). He was educated in

Wimbledon, London Wimbledon () is a district and town of Southwest London, England, southwest of the centre of London at Charing Cross; it is the main commercial centre of the London Borough of Merton. Wimbledon had a population of 68,187 in 2011 which includes ...

and was commissioned as a lieutenant, first in the

Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) The Queen's Royal Regiment (West Surrey) was a line infantry regiment of the English and later the British Army from 1661 to 1959. It was the senior English line infantry regiment of the British Army, behind only the Royal Scots in the British Arm ...

and then in the Welch Regiment. In 1886 he married Marion Kerr. They had one daughter."Frederick Kinsey Oman Peile"
Ancestry UK. Retrieved 28 July 2021. While still an army officer Peile appeared as an amateur in a charity show at the

Opera Comique The Opera Comique was a 19th-century theatre constructed in Westminster, London, between Wych Street, Holywell Street and the Strand. It opened in 1870 and was demolished in 1902, to make way for the construction of the Aldwych and Kingsway. ...

, London, in 1890. Difficulty in finding married quarters when the regiment was posted to Ireland led him to resign his commission, but he maintained his association with the military, serving in the Post Office Rifles.

Actor

Peile left the army and made his professional stage debut in 1892 at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, as the White Admiral in ''Blue Eyed Susan''.Parker, Gaye and Herbert, pp. 1893–94 He joined the company of the actor-manager George Alexander, first on tour and then at its London base, the St James's Theatre, appearing in ''

Liberty Hall Liberty Hall ( ga, Halla na Saoirse), in Dublin, Ireland, is the headquarters of the Services, Industrial, Professional, and Technical Union (SIPTU). Designed by Desmond Rea O'Kelly, it was completed in 1965. It was for a time the tallest b ...

'' and other productions, including the premiere of ''

The Importance of Being Earnest ''The Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People'' is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at the St James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious ...

'', in which he created the role of Lane. After some years' absence from the stage, during which he took up writing, Peile reappeared in 1908, when he toured with May Palfrey, as Blenkinsopp in

's ''Mrs Dot''. At the Garrick in 1910 he played in ''Dame Nature''; at the Strand in 1910 he was in ''The Man from Mexico'' and at the Royalty in 1911 he appeared in ''The Career of Nablotsky.'' In what ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' singled out as one of his most important roles, in 1911 at the Kingsway he played George Tesman in '' Hedda Gabler''."Mr F. Kinsey Peile", ''The Times'', 14 April 1934, p. 12 On the outbreak of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in 1914, though over fifty, he successfully sought a commission as a lieutenant in his old regiment, resuming his stage career in 1918. Peile's post-war roles included Otho in the Čapeks' ''

The Insect Play ''Pictures from the Insects' Life'' ( cs, Ze života hmyzu) – also known as ''The Insect Play'', ''The Life of the Insects'', ''The Insect Comedy'', ''The World We Live In'' and ''From Insect Life'' – is a satirical play that was written in ...

'' in 1923, alongside the young John Gielgud, Pauncefort Quentin in

's '' The Vortex'' (1924), and Richard Twining in Maugham's'' The Moon and Sixpence'' (1925). His final stage roles were Lord Cossington in a political satire, ''Wings Over Europe'', at the Globe in 1932, and the Duke of York in Gielgud's production of ''

Richard of Bordeaux ''Richard of Bordeaux'' (1932) is a play by "Gordon Daviot", a pseudonym for Elizabeth MacKintosh, best known by another of her pen names, Josephine Tey. The play tells the story of Richard II of England in a romantic fashion, emphasizing the r ...

'' at the New Theatre in 1933.

Writer and later years

In addition to acting, Peile was a playwright. His works written for the West End included ''Solomon's Twins'', 1897; ''An Interrupted Honeymoon'', 1899; ''Lyre and Lancet'', 1902; ''The Man Who Was'', 1903; ''Money and the Girl'', 1910; ''Bill'', ''Twelve o'clock'', and '' The Shooting Star'', all 1912; ''The Pink Nightgown'', 1913; and ''Who Laughs Last'', 1919. He wrote the music and lyrics for ''The Belle of Cairo'' (1896), a musical comedy with a book by

Cecil Raleigh Cecil Raleigh was the pseudonym of Abraham Cecil Francis Fothergill Rowlands (27 January 1856 – 10 November 1914, London, England), an English actor and playwright. Personal life Abraham Cecil Francis Fothergill Rowlands was born on 27 Janu ...

, starring

May Yohé Mary Augusta "May" Yohé (April 6, 1866 – August 29, 1938) was an American musical theatre actress. After beginning her career with the McCaull Comic Opera Company in 1886 in New York and Chicago, and after other performances in the United S ...

and

Giulia Warwick Giulia Warwick (15 January 1857 – 13 July 1904) was an English opera and concert singer and professor of music in the last quarter of the 19th century. She is best known for roles with Richard D'Oyly Carte's Comedy Opera Company and with the Carl ...

. In the view of '' The Era'', Peile was best known for his adaptation of

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

's story "The Man Who Was", which

Herbert Beerbohm Tree Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (17 December 1852 – 2 July 1917) was an English actor and theatre manager. Tree began performing in the 1870s. By 1887, he was managing the Haymarket Theatre in the West End, winning praise for adventurous progra ...

mounted with considerable success at His Majesty's in 1903 and revived frequently. Also for Tree, Peile adapted

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

's story "The Door upon the Latch"."Mr Kinsey Peile", ''The Era'', 10 September 1910, p. 12 He collaborated in the 1920s with

Algernon Blackwood Algernon Henry Blackwood, CBE (14 March 1869 – 10 December 1951) was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre. The literary cri ...

on several projects, including a three-act

farce Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical humor; the use of deliberate absurdity o ...

and a ballet based on Blackwood's story "The Wings of Horus", neither of which reached the stage. Peile appeared in films, including '' The Face at the Window'' (1920), ''

Three Live Ghosts ''Three Live Ghosts'' is a novel by Frederic Isham published in 1918. He adapted it into the 1920 Broadway play of the same name produced by Max Marcin. There were also three film adaptations: * ''Three Live Ghosts'' (1922 film), a British come ...

'' (1922), ''

The Presumption of Stanley Hay, MP ''The Presumption of Stanley Hay, MP'' is a 1925 British silent drama film directed by Sinclair Hill and starring David Hawthorne, Betty Faire, Fred Raynham and Kinsey Peile. It is adapted from a novel by Nowell Kaye. Cast * David Hawthorne ...

'' (1925), '' Settled Out of Court'' (1926), '' The Vortex'' (1928), ''

The Burgomaster of Stilemonde ''The Burgomaster of Stilemonde'' is a 1929 British silent drama film directed by George Banfield and starring John Martin Harvey, Fern Andra and Robert Andrews. It was made at Walthamstow Studios and on location in Belgium. It was based on ...

'' (1929) and ''High Society'' (1932)."Kinsey Peile"
British Film Institute. Retrieved 29 July 2021 Peile died in London on 13 April 1934, aged 72, survived by his widow and daughter.

Notes, references and sources

Notes

References

Sources

* * * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Peile, Kinsey 1861 births 1934 deaths British dramatists and playwrights British male film actors British male silent film actors British male stage actors Writers from Allahabad 20th-century British male actors British male dramatists and playwrights British people in colonial India