Arthur Margetson

Arthur Margetson (27 April 1887 – 12 August 1951) was a British stage and film actor, radio broadcaster, composer, lyricist, and impersonator. Born Arthur Charles Margetson in Marylebone, London, he was the younger son of Edward John Margetson, a composer, and Marion Stocqueler Wardroper. His mother was the daughter of an adulterous relationship between Joachim Hayward Stocqueler and Louisa Marianne Wardroper. Margetson received his education at the Royal Masonic School for Boys. Among his skills as a performer, he was known for impersonating figures such as G. P. Huntley, Alfred Lester, and Harry Weldon.

Margetson's stage career began in Britain, with early appearances including Theodore and Co. at the Prince's in Edinburgh in 1917 and Telling the Tale at the Ambassador's in 1918. He performed duets with Eileen Molyneux at the Chiswick Empire in 1919 and appeared in Topsy-Turvey that same year at the Kennington Theatre. His work in the 1920s took him across a range of British venues, including Little Miss Bluebeard at Wyndham's with Irene Bordoni in 1925, Betty in Mayfair at the Adelphi with Jack Hobbs, and Kid Boots at the Winter Garden in 1926. In 1927 he appeared in Noël Coward's Home Chat at the Duke of York's, and in 1929 he replaced Owen Nares as boxing hero Jim Brooks in Hold Everything! at the Palace Theatre, London. His first appearance in a straight play came in 1930, when he joined Tallulah Bankhead in Let Us Be Gay at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham.

Margetson's Broadway career spanned from 1922 to 1949, and he crossed the Atlantic at least twenty times between 1925 and 1949, traveling on liners including the Île de France and the Queen Elizabeth. His first transatlantic crossing with his wife Rosamund took place aboard the French vessel De Grasse on its maiden voyage from Le Havre in August 1924, arriving in New York on 5 September. His New York stage work included Nona at the Avon Theatre in 1932, A Good Woman, Poor Thing at the Avon in 1933, and A Saturday Night at the Playhouse that same year. In 1936 he appeared in Mainly for Lovers at the 48th Street Theatre, and in 1940 he took the stage in Charley's Aunt at the Cort Theatre. His 1942 appearance in Flare Path at Henry Miller's Theatre was notable for featuring Alec Guinness in his Broadway debut. Further New York credits included Another Love Story at the Fulton Theatre in 1943 and Life with Father at the Empire in 1945.

Among his most prominent Broadway productions were Park Avenue at the Schubert in 1946, Around the World at the Adelphi that same year, Little Brown Jug at the Martin Beck Theatre in 1946, The Play's the Thing at the National in Washington in 1948, and Clutterbuck at the Biltmore in 1949.

Margetson also built a substantial film career, making his screen debut in Wolves in 1930. His subsequent film roles included Other People's Sins (1931), Many Waters (1931), Little Friend (1934), The Mystery of the Mary Celeste (1935), in which he played Captain Benjamin Briggs, Broken Blossoms (1936) as Battling Burrows, Pagliacci (1936) as Tonio, and Random Harvest (1942) as Chetwynd. His final film appearance was in Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943), in which he played Dr. Bob Sexton.

Margetson was married four times. He wed Rosamond Bertram Ifould in Manhattan on 5 March 1923; she had three children from a previous marriage, and the couple divorced in London in 1925. His second marriage, to Vera Alys Lennox, took place at the Savoy Chapel on 28 June 1926 and ended in divorce in London in 1932. He married actress Shirley Grey, born Agnes Evangeline Zetterstrand in Connecticut, at Caxton Hall Register Office in 1936. His fourth marriage, to Barbara Joyce Wood, a former photographer's model, took place in New York in 1948. Outside of his professional life, Margetson had interests in swimming, music, and lyric writing, and held memberships in the Savage Club, the Stage Golfing Society, and the Green Room Club. He died on 12 August 1951 at the Central Middlesex Hospital, with his home at 20 Abbey Road, St. John's Wood.