Billie Ritchie

Billie Ritchie

Ritchie in Father was Neutral
Motion Picture News 5-22-1915
Born William Hill.[1]
14 September 1878
Glasgow, Scotland
Died 6 July 1921
Los Angeles, California
Cause of death Cancer
Nationality Scottish
Spouse(s) Winifred Monroe
Children

Wyn Ritchie Evans

(23 December 1900 - 11 April 2003)
A Bold, Bad Breeze, (1916)

Billie Ritchie (14 September 1878 – 6 July 1921) was a Scottish comedian who first gained transatlantic fame as a performer for British music hall producer Fred Karno—this, 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 director/producer Henry Lehrman's L-KO Kompany and Fox Film Sunshine Comedy unit. Variations on Ritchie's "tramp" and "drunk" personae - which Ritchie 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.[2] Winifred Monroe, the comedian's widow, and one-time stage partner, wound up in the employ of Charlie Chaplin.[3] Wyn Ritchie, their daughter, was also a performer, and, in private life, the wife (of 55 years) of songwriter Ray Evans.

Notes

  1. ↑ Steve Massa- Lame Brains and Lunatics pp.55
  2. ↑ Steve Massa- Lame Brains and Lunatics pp. 66-67
  3. ↑ Steve Massa- Lame Brains and Lunatics pp. 67-68

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