Frank Wyatt

Frank Wyatt (7 November 1852 – 5 October 1926) was an English actor, singer, theatre manager and playwright.

After beginning his career as an illustrator and painter, in 1877 Wyatt began a stage career in comedy, Victorian burlesque, pantomime and operetta. In 1884 he had success in a Shakespeare role in Henry Irving's company, and in 1885 he created the role of Ravennes in the comic opera Erminie, which went on to become an international sensation. In this production he met Violet Melnotte, who also appeared in Erminie and who managed the theatre where it premiered; they married in 1886.

In his more than two-decade career on stage Wyatt is best remembered for his roles with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1889 to 1891, and in particular for creating the role of the Duke of Plaza-Toro in Gilbert and Sullivan's hit comic opera The Gondoliers. Wyatt continued to perform in comic operas and comedies until about 1900. From the 1890s Wyatt and his wife owned and managed the Trafalgar Square Theatre, known after 1895 as the Duke of York's Theatre. He also wrote plays and a grand opera.

Wyatt was born Francis Nevill Gunning in Greenwich in London, the son of Thomas Wyatt Gunning (1813–1884), a barrister, and Lucy Latour (née Jenkins; 1819–1858). He was christened on 29 December 1852 in St Alfege church in Greenwich. His sisters were Charlotte Augusta Gunning (1851–1927) and Lucy Matilda Constance Gunning (1858–1871). He studied art at the Royal Academy, became an illustrator on the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News and successfully exhibited and sold paintings.

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