Charles Danby

Charles Clemson Percy Danby (1858 – 7 September 1906) was a British actor, singer, and comedian born in Newport, Monmouth, Wales, the son of Susan née Hickman and Charles Danby, an architect. Active during the late Victorian era, he became a familiar presence at the Gaiety Theatre in London and undertook an extraordinary volume of transatlantic work, completing 37 tours of the United States and three of Australia over the course of his career.

The 1881 Census records Danby as an "Actor Comedian." On 16 January 1882, he married Frances "Fanny" David (1859–after 1918) at the church of St John the Evangelist in Leeds, Yorkshire. The couple had a son, Charles David Danby MC (1887–1918), who served as a captain in the RFC during World War I and was killed in a flying accident. Fanny initiated divorce proceedings in 1890, obtaining a decree absolute in 1892 on grounds of his physical cruelty and adultery with multiple women, among them the actress Florence Levey, with whose parents he was residing in 1891.

Danby's first notable London success came in 1886 when he played Morel in Monte Cristo Jr. at the Gaiety Theatre, a production he subsequently took on tour to Australia in 1888–89 and to the United States in 1889. He played Captain Sneak in a revival of Alfred Cellier's The Sultan of Mocha in 1887, and in 1889 appeared as Don Salluste in Ruy Blas and the Blasé Roué at the Gaiety Theatre. The following year he toured America with the Gaiety Company as Valentine in Faust up to Date. In 1891 he took the role of Jacques Darc in the burlesque Joan of Arc at the Opera Comique and appeared as Sir Ludgate Hill in Cinder Ellen up too Late at the Gaiety Theatre. His portrayal of Squire Higgins in Morocco Bound at the Shaftesbury Theatre beginning in 1893 became one of his most sustained achievements, a role he performed over 500 times. That same year he was initiated as a Freemason into The Eccentric Lodge No. 2488.

In 1894 Danby played Roberts in The Lady Slavey at the Royal Avenue Theatre in London, a production that subsequently transferred to the Casino Theatre in New York in 1896. A critic writing in The Sketch observed of his performance that his "vast energy and broad sense of humour" made him "one of the funniest players in his line." Also in 1894, he appeared as Blueskin in a Gaiety Theatre revival of Little Jack Sheppard, opposite Ellaline Terriss as Winifred and Florence Levey as Polly Stanmore. When Oscar Wilde was arrested for sodomy in 1895, the Marquess of Queensberry publicly displayed a telegram from Danby reading "Hearty Congratulations."

Danby met his second wife, Alexia Bassian (1876–1948), an Armenian soprano, during one of his American tours. They married on 26 February 1899 in Norfolk, Virginia, at the Ladies Parlor of The Monticello Hotel. Later that year the couple appeared together in an American tour of The Geisha, with Danby as Captain Wun-Hi and Bassian as Juliette Diamant. His Broadway appearances came in 1900, when he played Griffard in The Cadet Girl at the Herald Square Theatre and also appeared in the musical Mam'selle 'Awkins.

In 1905, Alexia Bassian Danby undertook a seven-month Australian tour for J. C. Williamson, performing principal soprano roles in several Gilbert and Sullivan works, including Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore. Danby had not been engaged for the tour, but Williamson permitted him to perform the Bosun's mate in Pinafore and the Sergeant of Police in The Pirates of Penzance. A witness writing in The Bulletin in 1925 recalled that his "performance was funny in a way" but doubted "if Gilbert would have recognised his lines or Sullivan his music."

Upon returning to Britain from Australia, Danby was diagnosed with cancer of the jaw, and his life was extended only through a series of surgical operations. His wife abandoned her own career to care for him during his final months, and the couple received financial support from a benefit organized by his theatrical colleagues. Danby died in Paddington, London, in 1906 at the age of 49. His widow Alexia, by then working as a singer and teacher, returned to the United States in 1929.