Tod Slaughter
| Tod Slaughter | |
|---|---|
Tod Slaughter in the title role of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1936).
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| Born |
Norman Carter Slaughter 19 March 1885 Newcastle upon Tyne, England, UK |
| Died | 19 February 1956 (aged 70) Derby, Derbyshire, England, UK |
| Cause of death | Coronary thrombosis |
| Occupation | actor |
| Years active | 1905–1956 |
| Spouse(s) | Jenny Lynn |
Tod Slaughter (19 March 1885 – 19 February 1956) was an English actor, best known for playing over-the-top maniacs in macabre film adaptations of Victorian melodramas.
Born as Norman Carter Slaughter in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he attended the Royal Grammar School. The eldest surviving son of 12 children, he made his way onto the stage in 1905 at West Hartlepool. In 1913, he became a lessee of the Hippodrome theatres at Richmond and Croydon. After a brief interruption to serve during World War I in the Royal Flying Corps, Slaughter resumed his career and returned to the stage.
During this period, his stage name was N. Carter Slaughter and he primarily played the conventional leading man or character roles—seldom the villain. After the war, he ran the Theatre Royal, Chatham before taking over the Elephant and Castle Theatre in South London for a memorable few years from 1924 onwards that have since passed into British theatrical legend. Slaughter's company revived Victorian "blood-and-thunder" melodramas such as Maria Marten, Sweeney Todd, Jack Sheppard and The Silver King to enthusiastic audiences—not just locals but also sophisticated theatregoers from the West End who might have initially come for a cheap laugh but ended up enthralled by the power of the fare on offer. Slaughter also staged other types of production such as the annual Christmas pantomime where he would cast prominent local personalities in bit-parts for audience recognition. Despite a local protest, the Elephant and Castle Theatre was closed down in 1927, Slaughter's company vacating it several months before the end.
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