Theatre Register

Leslie Banks

Shows · Leslie Banks

Actor 1890–1952 On stage 19141949

Leslie James Banks CBE (9 June 1890 – 21 April 1952) was an English stage and screen actor, director and producer, now best remembered for playing gruff, menacing characters in black-and-white films of the 1930s and 1940s, but also the Chorus in Laurence Olivier's wartime version of Henry V.

On stage 8 productions, 35 years

1914 Eliza Comes to Stay Garrick Theatre · Original 13 perf.
1914 The Dear Fool Garrick Theatre · Original 24 perf.
1924 Peter Pan Knickerbocker Theatre · Revival · directed by Basil Dean 96 perf.
1930 The Man in Possession Booth Theatre · Original 98 perf.
1931 Springtime for Henry Bijou Theatre · Original · directed by Arthur Sircom 199 perf.
1937 To Quito and Back Guild Theatre · Original · directed by Philip Moeller 46 perf.
1938 Wine of Choice Guild Theatre · Original · directed by Herman Shumlin 43 perf.
1949 Lost in the Stars Music Box · Original · directed by Rouben Mamoulian 273 perf.

Each row is a staging this name appears in the cast list of, read from the production record rather than from the person record. The person record names works instead, and a work cannot say which run somebody was in — that is how Elaine Stritch ends up filed under Show Boat 1927 when she was in the 1994 revival. No row here says what part was played, because no cast list records it.

Worked with more than once6 names

Marion Courtnay 2 productions
Harry Ashford 2 productions
Fred Grove 2 productions
Eva Moore 2 productions
Estelle Despa 2 productions
Constance Groves 2 productions

Both names in the same cast list, more than once. It is not evidence of a partnership — a long-running company puts the same forty people together every night — but it is where one would start looking. 6 of these names are not links because we hold no record behind them; the name is set from the identifier and its punctuation may be wrong.

In the literature5 passages

  • Cast: Todd Duncan, Leslie Banks, Warren Coleman, Inez Matthews, Julian Mayfield, Frank Roane, Sheila Guyse, Herbert Colemanebooks/Green, Stanley/Broadway Musicals, Show By Show - Seventh Edition - Stanley Green & Cary Ginell.txt
  • Ethel Barrymore revived “The Second Mrs. Tanqueray.” Other revivals were Marilyn Miller in “Peter Pan” with Leslie Banks as Capt. Hook; Jane Cowl with Rollo Peters in “Antony and Cleopatra ;” Bertha Kalish in “The Kreutzer Sonata;” James K. Hackett with Clare Eames in “Macbeth;” Miss Ames also revived “Hedda Gabler;” “She Stoops to Conque…theatre-pdfs/A Pictorial History of the American Theatre, 1860-1985 (Blum).txt
  • contented herself with wearing a series of sparkling Molyneux gowns and trilling with the affections of a husband (Leslie Banks) and two lovers (Hughtheatre-pdfs/Gertrude Lawrence - Sheridan Morley.txt
  • Theatre Guild presentation of Wine of Choice, with (1. to r.) Donald Cook, Claudia Morgan, Paul Stewart, Leslie Banks, Alexander Woollcott (seated), Theodore Newton, and Herbert Yost. New York, Guild Theatre, 1938. [Photograph by Vandamm. Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library at Lincoln Center, Astor, Lenox and TUden Foundations…theatre-pdfs/McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Drama, v. 1 (A-C).txt
  • rO QUITO AND BACK (Oct. 6) by Ben Hecht. Producer: Theatre Guild. Directed by Philip Moeller. Settings by Aline Bernstein. With Sylvia Sidney and Leslie Banks.theatre-pdfs/sim_theatre-arts_1937-11_21_11.txt

Passages naming this person, found by keyword across 178 books. A keyword match is not a biography, and a common name will pull in the wrong one.

What this page does not know

  • What this person played. No cast list we hold records a character against a performer.
  • Which of the credits above the roles on this record — actor — apply to. The roles sit on the person and never on a credit, so a director who also acted looks the same here as one who did not.

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