Billie Ritchie
Scottish comedian (1878–1921)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Hill, known professionally as Billie Ritchie (5 September 1874 – 6 July 1921), was a Scottish comedian who first gained transatlantic fame as a performer for British music hall producer Fred Karno — a full decade before Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin took a similar career path. Ritchie is best recalled today for the silent comedy shorts he made between 1914 and 1920 for producer-director Henry Lehrman's L-KO Motion Picture Company and Fox Film Sunshine Comedy unit.
5 September 1874
Billie Ritchie | |
|---|---|
Inscribed to Phil Dunham | |
| Born | William Hill[1]: 55 5 September 1874 |
| Died | 6 July 1921 (aged 46) |
| Spouse | Winifred Frances Kirby |
| Children | 1 |
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Biography
In 1906–1908 and again in 1911–1913, Ritchie toured in Lee Orean Smith's musical Around the Clock in which he starred as the drunk Billie Smith.[2] Variations on Ritchie's "tramp" and "drunk" personae – which Ritchie claimed he had developed before and during his Karno years – were introduced to film audiences by Charlie Chaplin in such shorts as the Lehrman-directed Kid Auto Races at Venice (7 February 1914) and Mabel's Strange Predicament (9 February 1914).
Ritchie, who, due to a series of on-set injuries, spent his final years relatively inactive, succumbed to stomach cancer in the summer of 1921.[1]: 66–67 Winifred Frances, the comedian's widow and onetime stage partner, wound up in the employ of Charlie Chaplin as a wardrobe mistress, suggesting there was no animosity between the two performers.[1]: 67–68 Wyn Ritchie, their daughter, was also a performer and, in private life, the wife (for 55 years) of songwriter Ray Evans.
In popular culture
In 1918 Dutch illustrator David Bueno de Mesquita created a comic book about Ritchie named Billie Ritchie en zijn ezel (Billie Ritchie and his donkey). This was the first celebrity comic in Dutch history.[3]
