George Thorne (actor)

George Tyrell Thorne (6 January 1856 – 24 July 1922) was an English singer and actor, best known for his performances in the comic baritone roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, especially on tour and in the original New York City productions. He married D'Oyly Carte chorister Geraldine Thompson.

Thorne was born in Chertsey, Surrey, England. His father was Richard Samuel Thorne, who managed the Surrey Theatre. His elder brother, Thomas Thorne, was an actor and theatre manager, best known as a founding manager of London's Vaudeville Theatre. His nephew was the actor Frank Gillmore, and his great-nieces were the actresses Ruth Gillmore and Margalo Gillmore.

Thorne began his stage career at the age of two, when he was carried on at the Theatre Royal, Margate, in the burlesque Medea. Early engagements followed with his sister, Sarah Thorne's, company, (1870–73); John Coleman's stock company in Leeds (1873); the Covent Garden pantomime (1874–75); and at the Corinthian Theatre, Calcutta, where he reportedly played 104 parts in six months in 1876.

Thorne joined a D'Oyly Carte touring company in 1881, playing Captain Felix Flapper in Billee Taylor. Later in 1881, back in England, he toured as Reginald Bunthorne in Patience. In 1882–83, he toured as Blood-red Bill in Edward Solomon and Henry Pottinger Stephens's Claude Duval and then as Bunthorne. In 1883, Thorne married actress Beatrice Thomas, who toured with Thorne as a chorister in the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company under the stage name Geraldine Thompson. In 1884, Thorne appeared as Sir Joseph Porter in H.M.S. Pinafore, Major General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance, and Bunthorne, with a D'Oyly Carte touring company, adding the roles of Lord Chancellor in Iolanthe and Ko-Ko in The Mikado in 1885.

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