Will Fyffe
| Will Fyffe | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 16 February 1885 Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom |
| Died | 14 December 1947 St Andrews, Scotland, United Kingdom |
| Occupation | Actor, Singer |
| Years active | 1914–1947 (film) |
Will Fyffe, CBE (16 February 1885 – 14 December 1947) was a Scottish music hall artist, a star of the 1930s and 1940s, on stage, screen and records.
Fyffe made his debut in his father's stock company at the age of six. He travelled extensively throughout Scotland and the rest of the UK, playing the numerous music halls of the time, where he performed his sketches and sang his songs in his own inimitable style. During the 1930s, he was one of the highest paid musical hall artistes in Britain.
In addition, Fyffe appeared in 23 major films of the era (American and British), sometimes starring, and recorded over 30 songs, delivered with his own unique style.
His singer-songwriter skills are still well-known today, particularly his own composition, "I Belong To Glasgow". This song has been covered by Danny Kaye, Eartha Kitt, Gracie Fields and Kirk Douglas:
As a result of this song, Fyffe became forever associated with Glasgow, even though he was born 70 miles (110 km) away in the east coast city of Dundee, where a street bears his surname.
Fyffe left some rare footage of his stage act, which gives us a glimpse of stage life in those times. In the footage, he performs the "Broomielaw" sketch and sings his song "Twelve and a Tanner a Bottle". The footage came about as a result of a screen test, shot for Pathe in New York in 1929.
Will Fyffe was born, on 16 February 1885, in a tenement at 36 Broughty Ferry Road, Dundee, the eldest child of John Fyffe (1864–1928), a ship's carpenter, and a music teacher, Janet Rhynd Cunningham (1858–1949).
His father was interested in theatrical entertainment and operated a Penny Geggy, in which the young Will gained valuable experience as a character actor, as he travelled around the Lowlands of Scotland.
In his twenties, Fyffe joined Will Haggar Junior's Castle Theatre company, touring the South Wales Valleys from its base in Abergavenny. Fyffe and his wife feature in an advert for the Castle Theatre in the Portable Times in 1911.
Fyffe's screen debut was in 1914 when William Haggar, Will Junior's father and a pioneer silent film producer, made an epic 50-minute version of the classic Welsh Tale, The Maid of Cefn Ydfa, which was first screened in Aberdare in December of that year. Reviewed in The South Wales Echo in 1938, the film disappeared, but was rediscovered in 1984 in a family cupboard and conserved: 38 minutes survives, in the Welsh Film Archive in Aberystwyth. In the film, Fyffe plays Lewis Bach, the loyal servant of the maid. He appealed against conscription in 1918 on grounds of his occupation, serious hardship and ill health.
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