Richard Garrick

Richard Garrick, born Richard Thomas O'Brien on December 27, 1878, in the townland of Portlaw, County Waterford, Ireland, was an Irish-born American actor and director whose career spanned stage, silent film, sound film, and television. He died on August 21, 1962, in Los Angeles.

Garrick's father, James E. O'Brien, worked as a master tailor in Portlaw, with clients that included Lord Waterford and other members of the nobility and landed gentry. In 1882, James emigrated to North Adams, Massachusetts, where cotton mills created demand for a skilled clothesmaker. Two years later, Johanna O'Brien and her children joined him there. In 1898, Garrick enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving as a corporal in Company M of the U.S. 26th Infantry Regiment. By 1900, he was stationed in Miagao, Iloilo, in the Philippines during the Philippine–American War. After returning to North Adams, he worked briefly in his father's tailor shop before relocating to New York City to pursue stage acting.

His Broadway career extended from 1907 to 1947 and encompassed productions across multiple genres, including the musical A Certain Party, the comedy Feathers in a Gale, the play Deep Are the Roots, and Thais, among others. His early New York stage work included roles in The Boys of Company B in 1907, The Flag Lieutenant and The Fourth Estate in 1909, and The Monkey's Paw. By 1912, Garrick had moved to Los Angeles, where he became a charter member of The Reel Club and began acting in and directing silent films. His directorial credits from that period include A Heart Reclaimed, The Part of Her Life, The Laird's Daughter, His Father's Bugle, Officer Murray, and By-Gone Days, all from 1912 and 1913, followed by Colonel Custard's Last Stand in 1914. In 1915, he joined the Gaumont Company and was placed in charge of the second Rialto Star Feature Company. The following year he became director general of Gaumont's Jacksonville, Florida, studios before departing to establish Garrick Studios Company, a five-acre Jacksonville facility designed to accommodate up to twenty production companies simultaneously. Shifting local sentiment against the film industry in Jacksonville during the 1916–1917 season disrupted those plans.

In 1919, Garrick traveled overseas and directed films in London and Paris. By 1922, he had been appointed production manager of a new film corporation in Italy. Over the course of his silent-film career he directed approximately thirty pictures, including Trent's Last Case, A Rank Outsider, The Pride of the Fancy, and The Romance of a Movie Star, all from 1920. He subsequently returned to the United States to concentrate on stage acting. During World War II, he appeared in a production of Ten Little Indians staged by the U.S. Army Special Service and USO Camp Shows in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations.

In 1947, Garrick appeared in New York in the original Broadway production of A Streetcar Named Desire, playing the mental-health doctor referred to as the stranger. The production co-starred Marlon Brando and Jessica Tandy. He reprised the role in the 1951 film adaptation, a credit that marked the beginning of a second film career. Throughout the 1950s he took on supporting roles in numerous Hollywood productions and accumulated television credits that included the role of Benjamin Franklin in Night Strike on Cavalcade of America, which aired on April 29, 1953, and again on October 19, 1954, and the role of Thaddeus Grimshaw in the My Friend Flicka episode Royal Carriage, broadcast on March 16, 1956.

Beyond performing, Garrick contributed to actor training. He taught at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and in 1930 opened the Richard Garrick Studio in Santa Ana, California, offering instruction in drama, English, public speaking, and related subjects to aspiring performers.