Conway Tearle
| Frederick Conway Tearle | |
|---|---|
Picture of Tearle in The Photo-Play Journal (April 1917)
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| Born |
Frederick Conway Levy May 17, 1878 New York, New York, United States |
| Died | October 1, 1938 (aged 60) Hollywood, California, United States |
| Occupation | Stage and screen actor |
| Years active | 1899-1937 (stage), 1914-1936 (film) |
Conway Tearle (May 17, 1878 – October 1, 1938) was an Anglo-American stage actor who went on to perform in silent and early sound films.
Frederick Conway Levy was born on May 17, 1878, in New York City, the son of the well-known British-born cornetist Jules Levy (1838–1903) and American actress Marianne “Minnie” Conway (1852–1896). Tearle also had a sister, and a half-brother, musician Jules Levy, Jr., from his father's previous marriage. Minnie's mother was stage actress Sarah Crocker Conway. Minnie Conway was a direct descendant of William Augustus Conway, a British Shakespearian actor who became popular in America during the 1820s. Her father, the proprietor of the Brooklyn Theatre, was said to have organized the first stock company in America. After Tearle’s parents separated, his mother married Osmond Tearle (1852–1901), a British Shakespearian actor popular in “the provinces”. Two half brothers, Godfrey and Malcolm Tearle, were born from Marianne's marriage to Osmond Tearle.
Conway Levy was educated in England and America and took to the stage at an early age. By the age of ten he could recite twelve Shakespearean plays from memory. As an adult he adopted his step-father's surname to become Conway Tearle. His big break came at the age of twenty-one when in Manchester, England, without any preparation, he was called upon to play Hamlet after the lead actor took ill just prior to the first act.
Tearle's performance that night led to his first appearance on the London stage playing the Viscomte de Chauvin, the lead role in The Queen's Double, on April 27, 1901, at the Garrick Theatre. He next toured Australia playing the title role in Ben Hur for some months before returning to London to star in the play The Best of Friends at the Theatre Royal. Tearle divided the following four seasons equally with companies headed by Ellen Terry and Sir Charles Wyndham.
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