John Garrick

John Garrick, born Reginald Dandy on 31 August 1902 in Brighton, England, was a British stage and screen actor who performed on both sides of the Atlantic before his death on 22 October 1966 in San Francisco, California. He received his education in Brighton, attending the city's schools and Brighton College.

Dandy's connection to the stage began early. He made his first stage appearance at the age of ten in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. After leaving school he took a position at a bank, but departed after a few months to pursue a career in performance. He developed an original vaudeville act that he performed at amateur shows, which was subsequently taken up by a theatrical manager and toured throughout Great Britain. That work led to his engagement for a feature role in a revue at the Queen's Theatre.

A significant chapter in Dandy's career unfolded in Australia, where he was engaged by J. C. Williamson to play the male lead in a production of the operetta Rose-Marie. The production opened in Sydney in May 1926 and ran for an initial season of forty-eight weeks, a record-breaking engagement. He continued performing in Rose-Marie for two years across seasons in Australia and New Zealand. Following that run, he took on leading roles in The Desert Song, Katja the Dancer, and Prince Charming.

In 1929, Dandy traveled to the United States, arriving in California and securing the lead role in a play called The Wishing Well, which toured the West Coast before closing in Los Angeles after four performances. Despite the short run, representatives from Fox Films had seen the production and cast him as the stage prince in Married in Hollywood, directed by Marcel Silver. For that role he adopted the stage name John Garrick, chosen to avoid confusion with the established actor Reginald Denny.

Garrick appeared on Broadway in 1932 in the musical A Little Racketeer. That same year he returned to England, where he went on to appear in numerous British films.