Richard Ganthony

Richard Ganthony (1856–1924) was a British-born actor, playwright, and book writer whose career unfolded primarily in the United States. Born in Liverpool, England, he relocated to America at a young age and went on to establish himself in both performance and dramatic writing. At the time of his death in May 1924, at the age of 67, the Malaya Tribune noted that he had been a naturally retiring figure who was not widely known in theatrical circles.

Ganthony's Broadway career included appearances in and contributions to several productions, among them A Message from Mars, A Brace of Partridges, and The Cat and the Cherub. His stage breakthrough came in September 1897 at the Olympia Theatre in New York City, where he took on the role of Chim Fang, the grim owner of an opium den, in The Cat and the Cherub. That same production marked the beginning of his work as a dramatist, as The Cat and the Cherub was also his first play. His second, A Brace of Partridges, followed in 1898 and featured his brother Robert among the cast. Among his other notable acting roles were appearances in Lady of Venice and Mrs. Dascot. In February 1899, he portrayed Colonel Sir George Ferrers in a production of London Life at Washington, D.C.'s National Theatre, a play adapted from the French Le Camelot and written by Martyn Field and Arthur Shirley. He reprised that role when the production moved to the Columbus Theater in March 1899.

As a playwright, Ganthony is best remembered for A Message from Mars, which premiered in 1899 and became his most celebrated work. He regarded it as the finest comedy he ever wrote. The play's conception drew on his experiences as a performer, which had impressed upon him the importance of dramatic construction. Ganthony persuaded Henry Miller to retrieve the script from storage and subsequently convinced Charles Hawtrey to produce it in England. The work used astronomy as a framework to examine selfishness, centering on the most self-interested man alive as its subject. In 1912, A Message from Mars was published as a book credited jointly to Lester Lurgan and Ganthony. His authorship of the play was the subject of a legal dispute in 1903, when the Daily Express falsely claimed that George Hawtrey had rewritten the work before it achieved success; Ganthony was awarded £200 in libel damages by the court. He also authored the plays The Prophecy and additional works throughout his career.

In his personal life, Ganthony's sister Nellie was also active in the entertainment industry, and he was the brother-in-law of actress Marie Dressler. In his final years he gradually withdrew from professional life, and he died of an illness in Richmond in May 1924.