Arthur Bourchier

Arthur Bourchier (22 June 1863 – 14 September 1927) was an English actor, theatre manager, and book writer who also appeared on Broadway. Born in Speen, Berkshire, the only son of Fanny (née Farr) and Captain Charles John Bourchier, he was educated at Eton, where he played cricket, and subsequently at Christ Church, Oxford. At Oxford he performed with an amateur group called the Philothespian Society, taking the role of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. With the encouragement of Vice-Chancellor Benjamin Jowett, Bourchier founded the Oxford University Dramatic Society, which replaced the Philothespians. Through the OUDS he played Hotspur, Falstaff, Feste, Thanatos in Alcestis, and Brutus opposite H. B. Irving's Caesar.

Bourchier made his first professional appearance in 1889 alongside Lillie Langtry, playing Jaques in As You Like It. He subsequently worked with Charles Wyndham at the Criterion Theatre and traveled to the United States to perform with Augustin Daly's company, for whom he later played Robin Hood in Tennyson's The Foresters at its London premiere. In 1893 he appeared with Violet Vanbrugh in Daly's production of Love in Tandem at Daly's Theatre in London, and the two married the following year. Their daughter, Prudence Bourchier, born in 1902, became an actress under the stage name Vanbrugh.

In 1895 Bourchier became lessee of the Royalty Theatre, where Vanbrugh served as his leading lady. Among the productions mounted there were The Chili Widow, an adaptation Bourchier wrote himself that ran for over 300 nights, as well as Mr and Mrs, Monsieur de Paris, and The Queen's Proctor. His Broadway appearances in 1896 included The Chili Widow and The Queen's Proctor. Bourchier, Vanbrugh, and her sister Irene subsequently toured America beginning in 1897, and on returning to England, Bourchier produced Teresa at the Metropole, in which Vanbrugh played the title role.

In 1900, working in partnership with Charles Wyndham at the Criterion, Bourchier produced His Excellency the Governor, Lady Huntworth's Experiment, The Noble Lord, and Mamma. That September he became lessee of the Garrick Theatre, managing it for six years and staging numerous productions featuring himself and Vanbrugh, among them The Bishop's Move, My Lady Virtue, Whitewashing Julia, The Arm of the Law, and W. S. Gilbert's The Fairy's Dilemma in 1904. That same year, Alfred Sutro's The Walls of Jericho ran for 423 performances under their management. Bourchier and Vanbrugh also appeared in command performances before King Edward VII, performing Dr Johnson at Sandringham in November 1902 with Henry Irving's company and The Merchant of Venice at Windsor in November 1905.

In 1910 Bourchier joined Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree at His Majesty's Theatre, appearing in Shakespearean productions including A Midsummer Night's Dream as Bottom, Julius Caesar as Brutus, Twelfth Night as Sir Toby Belch, and The Merry Wives of Windsor as Ford to Tree's Falstaff. He achieved particular success in the title role of Henry VIII, with Tree as Wolsey and Vanbrugh as Queen Katherine, a production that was followed by Tree's silent film of a shortened version of the play in February 1911. In 1913 Bourchier and Vanbrugh produced their own film in Germany of scenes from Macbeth. Bourchier returned to manage the Garrick for a further two years beginning in 1912, and in 1913 appeared in a revival of London Assurance staged in aid of King George's Actors' pension fund alongside Tree, Henry Ainley, Charles Hawtrey, Weedon Grossmith, and Marie Tempest.

In 1916 Bourchier again played Brutus in Julius Caesar at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, for the Shakespeare tercentenary, with Frank Benson as Caesar, H. B. Irving as Cassius, and Ainley as Antony. That same year he assumed management of His Majesty's Theatre. In 1917 he created the role of Bruce Bairnsfather's "Old Bill" in the stage adaptation The Better 'Ole at the Oxford Music Hall, where the production ran for over 800 performances. Bourchier and Vanbrugh divorced in 1918 after separating two years earlier, and Bourchier subsequently married the actress Violet Marion Kyrle Bellew, with whom he continued to perform in contemporary melodramas.

From 1919 to 1923 Bourchier managed the Strand Theatre, where in 1922 he appeared as Long John Silver in J. B. Fagan's adaptation of Treasure Island. He toured with the production in 1923 and brought it back to the Strand the following year. In 1921 he appeared in the Hugh Ford film The Great Day, and in 1920 he played Iago. Throughout his career Bourchier worked on productions connected with writers including W. S. Gilbert, Anthony Hope, Arthur Wing Pinero, and Alfred Sutro.

In his later years Bourchier became active in British politics as a member of the Labour Party, writing a pamphlet for the Independent Labour Party in 1926 on the subject of art and culture in relation to socialism. At the time of his death he had been selected as the Labour Party's parliamentary candidate for Gloucester. In the final year of his life he embarked on a tour of South Africa, his departure marked by a luncheon at Claridge's at which former members of the OUDS presented him with a bronze bust commissioned in recognition of his founding and subsequent subsidizing of the society. Bourchier fell ill in South Africa and died of pneumonia in Johannesburg on 14 September 1927 at the age of 64.