Philip Golding SimmonsMC (4 June 1884 - 5 January 1963), known professionally as Philip Strange, was an English singer and stage and film actor. In a career of over 40 years, he appeared as a tenor in concerts and musical plays and then turned to straight plays and films. He was mostly cast in supporting roles, playing princes and villains, aristocrats and soldiers. His greatest success as an actor came late in his career when he played the father in The Winslow Boy during a ten-month tour in 1947-1948.
Philip Golding Simmons was born at Bird Place in Remenham, Henley-on-Thames, Berkshire, England, the only son of Sir William Anker Simmons K.B.E. (1857-1927), an auctioneer and estate agent, agricultural adviser and four times mayor of Henley-on-Thames,[1] and Lady Simmons, née Edith Nora Beddome (d. 1932). He had three sisters: Irene Nora (b. 1887), Marjorie Yvonne (b. 1890) and Lorna Yvette (b. 1897). Strange was educated at Marlborough College from September 1897[2] and was awarded the prize for trebles in the following year.[3] He went on to study singing under Arthur Thompson (d. 1926)[4] at the Royal Academy of Music, where he won the Ross Scholarship and in 1904 a bronze medal for singing.[5] He then went to Paris to pursue further vocal training with Jacques Bouhy for a year.[6]
Career
Concerts
Strange sang for the first time in public at the Terminal Chamber Concert of the students of the Royal Academy of Music at the Queen’s Hall in London on 21 July 1904.[7] He began his professional career two years later after his return from France and made his debut at a concert with Clara Butt in Dundee on 16 October 1906.[8] Strange toured with Clara Butt and Kennerley Rumford until 1912, and the pair became friends of the Simmons family (see below). From 1907 to 1912, Strange appeared regularly at the Chappell Ballad Concerts at the Queen’s Hall in London.[9] He also performed solo and sang at the Aeolian Hall[10] and at the Promenade Concerts[11] in 1908 and gave a vocal recital at Bechstein Hall in 1910.[12] In the same year he became the first singer to perform the song „Where My Caravan has Rested“, accompanied by Hermann Löhr, who had completed the composition on the same day.[13] Strange had by now become a popular and sought after tenor. He accompanied the ten-year-old pianist Solomon at his debut at the Royal Albert Hall in 1912,[14] performed with Vera Doria at the Aeolian Hall[15] and was a member of the Marie Novello Trio in 1919.[16] In 1926 he appeared with José Collins in Washington.[17] His last performance as a singer seems to have been in April 1939 as one of the soloists of John Stainer’s The Crucifixion at St. Paul’s Parish Church, Thornton Heath.[18]
Theatre
Philip Simmons and Dorothy Dickson in "Patricia", 1924.
Besides singing, Strange also acted on the stage throughout most of his career. Two years after he made his debut as a tenor, George Edwardes gave him a contract to appear in his shows at the Gaiety Theatre and elsewhere.[19] His first role in 1908 was Sir Anthony Phipps in the musical play The Dollar Princess in Manchester and Edinburgh, before it opened in London.[20] He next played Apollo in Tariff Reform, or the Gift of the Gods in Henley[21] and appeared in the tour production of The Merry Widow.[22] After two years of concerts, Strange returned to plays in 1912 and performed in The Dancing Viennese by Oscar Straus at the Coliseum in London.[23] In the fall he went to America where he appeared as Prince Ivan in The Enchantress in Ohio,[24] as Gaston in Little Boy Blue at the Chicago Opera House[25] and as Prince Louis, the leading male role, in The Dream Maiden, a comic opera by Allen Lowe and Bela Laszky, in New York and on tour.[26] After the war, Strange performed in the musical play Maggie[27] by Fred Thompson and the next year in Who’s Hooper?[28] and The Naughty Princess.[29] In 1922, he appeared in Bruce Bairnsfather’s two-act play Old Bill, M.P.[30] Now under contract with George Grossmith and J. A. E. Malone, Strange was the leading man in the touring production of the musical comedy Sally.[31] In the next year he appeared as Hector in the popular musical play Toni[32] and then in the successful musical comedy The Beauty Prize,[33] followed by the equally popular comedy Patricia, in which he played the hero.[34]
This string of successes was cut short in 1925. Edward Laurillard had offered Strange the leading part in the American performance of A Night Out.[35] The play, which had been a success in London, proved to be a flop in Philadelphia and was canceled after 16 performances.[36] Strange accepted a settlement, went to New York and looked for work on Broadway. Nothing came his way for six months. Then he met William Le Baron who offered him a bit part in a film.[37] He went to Hollywood, where he acted in three plays. Under his new name of Philip Strange, he played the male lead in The Silver Cord with the Los Angeles Repertory Theatre at the Figueroa Playhouse in 1928.[38] Two years later he appeared in two one-act plays at The Writers’ Club, first in Acid Drops[39] by Gertrude E. Jennings and then in The Prince Sits Out The Dance by Marie E. Rodda.[40]
Films
Philip Strange made 38 films, 15 of them in New York and Hollywood, where he spent four years. Today, many of his films are lost, while 12 are accessible online.
While looking for work on Broadway in 1926, Strange met William Le Baron who encouraged him to take a screen test at the Astoria Studios on Long Island.[44] The test went well, and Strange was offered a bit part in The Sorrows of Satan, where he can be spotted sitting at a table at min. 36:46. On the film set, he was noticed by Adolphe Menjou because of his fine suit by Anderson & Sheppard.[45] Menjou asked him if he wanted to play in his next film, The Ace of Cads. Strange got the second lead and played the villain, conveying „a nice note of ruthless selfishness.“[46] It was his first important role. Before the film was released, the actor’s name was changed, first to Sterling, and then to Strange.[47] He was now offered a long-term contract with ParamountFamous Players-Lasky.[48] In the New York studios, Strange made The Popular Sin[49] and Broadway Nights,[50] both of which are lost. When the Astoria Studio was shut down on 15 March 1927, all staff, including the contract players, were sent to Hollywood.[51]
After Man Power,[52] which is lost, Strange made Nevada with Gary Cooper and Thelma Todd. He played Ben Ide, an English rancher, whose sister Hettie quickly becomes Cooper’s love interest. Cooper catches the rustlers who stole Ben Ide’s cattle, and then he gets Hettie. Philip Strange gave an amusing account of the filming of Nevada.[53] His next two movies were Sporting Goods with Richard Dix, which was produced in November and December 1927 as „The Traveling Salesman“,[54] and the successful Loves of an Actress with Pola Negri.[55] Dissatisfied with his roles, Strange concluded his Paramount contract after only half a year in December 1927 and decided to become freelance.[56] On the 20th of October his father had died. Together with Ronald Colman, Strange left for England on the Berengaria on the 10th of February 1928.[57]Clive Brook had given him an introduction to Alfred Hitchcock, who was filming some scenes for Champagne on the Berengaria after her arrival at Southampton a week later, but nothing came of it.[58] Instead, Strange found a new wife and returned to America with Madeline Seymour in April.[59]
His next film, The Rescue with Ronald Colman, one of Strange’s best films, survives incomplete.[60] He then played the villain in Behind that Curtain, his first talkie and the earliest surviving Charlie Chan film.[61] In The Unholy Night, supporting Roland Young and Ernest Torrence, Strange can be heard singing together with the others. He has a strong scene in which he breaks down, knowing there is a murderer in the house.[62] His last film of 1929, Wall Street, appears to have survived.[63] In Vengeance, he played the second lead to Jack Holt and gave one of his most striking performances as the drunkard Charles Summers.[64] In his small part in A Notorious Affair, he displayed his comic abilities as the monocled fiancé of Billie Dove, who marries the suave Basil Rathbone instead.[65] His role in Bright Lights, again as the rich fiancé, was not much more than a bit part. It was the last film he made in America.[66]
Back in England, where he had kept his house,[67] Strange was unable to continue his success and played mostly minor roles, many of them in quota quickies. The first reviews were damning. When he played Richard Amory in the adaptation of Agatha Christie’s play Black Coffee in 1931, the critic from the Bioscope wrote that Strange was „clearly neglected by the director“,[68] while William H. Mooring states that Strange „behaves with incredible „amateurishness““.[69] Nevertheless, for 1932 there are five films to his credit: Strictly Business,[70]Money for Nothing,[71]The Return of Raffles,[72]Sally Bishop[73] and Diamond Cut Diamond with Adolphe Menjou.[74] In 1933, he had a fine role in Loyalties, the film version of John Galsworthy’s play about antisemitism. Strange played the staunch friend of Captain Dancy (Miles Mander), who had robbed the Jew de Levis (noble and indignant: Basil Rathbone).[75] Most of the next five films are lost: Mayfair Girl,[76]Designing Women,[77]Guest of Honour,[78]Borrowed Clothes[79] and No Escape, in which Strange played with his wife Madeline Seymour.[80]The Scarlet Pimpernel, with Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon, is the best film in which Strange appeared. He had a few lines as member of the league of the Scarlet Pimpernel and can be seen without moustache, but with a spotted cravat, in the Blacks Club and at the ball.[81]Romance in Rhythm[82] and Boomerang,[83] his next films, are lost. In 1935, Conquest of the Air, an ambitious film chronicling the history of aviation was begun, supervised by Winston Churchill and starring Laurence Olivier as Vincenzo Lunardi.[84] Philip Strange had a small bit part and appears at min. 52:47 as co-pilot with headphones, almost unrecognizable without his moustache. In the next year, he played Geoffrey in Jury's Evidence.[85] In 1937 he had a small but crucial part as Richard Challoner in The High Command, where he is shot after six minutes.[86] He then played Mr. Henry in The Sky's the Limit, a musical comedy.[87] His next and last film was made twelve years later in 1949. Here, in Trottie True, he can be seen at min. 1:23:41 in a bit part. He has exactly one line: „She’s a very pretty girl.“[88] In the following year, Strange appeared in his only TV programme, Drawing-Room Detective, which was aired on May 27, 1950. While it is not known which role he played, the film is notable for being one of the earliest TV appearances of Roger Moore.[89]
Military Service
Philip Strange served in World War I with the Grenadier Guards in France and Belgium. He had initially been with the 2/5th Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment (Territorial Force) and received his training at Killinghall Camp, a huge tent camp near Harrogate in Yorkshire.[90] In November 1916, he was transferred to the Grenadier Guards at Chelsea Barracks, London, and was appointed to the Special Reserve of Officers as Lieutenant.[91] Four months later, he joined the 1st Battalion in France[92] and took part in the attack at Boesinghe in Belgium on 31 July 1917,[93] which was part of the Battle of Passchendaele. In December, Strange was awarded the Military Cross[94] „For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty when in charge of the leading wave in an advance. On seeing two enemy machine guns trying to get into action he brought his Lewis guns to bear, and, getting away to a flank, dashed in with two sections with rifle-bayonet and bomb before they could open fire. Some of the enemy retired at once and all the remainder were put out of action. It was due to his gallantry and skill that the advance was not checked. Both machine guns were captured.“[95] The battalion then moved to Steenbeek Valley, where it helped with the preparations for the attack on 9 October 1917,[96] and in January went to France.[97] An anecdote recounts that „One night in the trenches Mr. Simmons was singing one of the men’s favourite songs, „Picardy,“ to them. Next night they could hear the Boches in the trenches opposite practising the same air to German words!“[98] On 19 February 1919, Philip Strange was demobilised and granted the rank of Captain.[99] When he returned home to his wife, she found him „greatly changed“.[100]
In the second World War, Strange was at the Small Arms School at Bisley (see above).
Private Life
Philip Strange was married three times. His first wife was Pauline Clare Bamberger (1886-1927), a niece of Sir Rufus Isaacs, who was later to become the 1st Marquess of Reading. They were married on 14. Jul|y 1910 at Christ Church, (now Spire House) Lancaster Gate, London. Among the 300 guests were Clara Butt and Kennerley Rumford.[101] The couple lived at Bird Place Cottage, Henley-on-Thames, a Grade II listed building next to the Henley Royal Regatta Headquarters.[102] Some years after the war they moved to Harley Road in Hampstead, London.[103] When Strange met his second wife, he left Pauline in March 1921 without giving a reason. When she wrote to him to ask if he was prepared to live with her again, he replied: „Dear Wynne, I hate having to say anything to hurt you, but it is quite impossible for me to return to you. There can never be any happiness for us together, and I don’t want to waste any more years of your life. I take all the blame on myself, and only ask one thing of you - try and forgive me for the misery I have caused you. And I pray that some day you may know what real happiness means. I could never give it you; that is why my decision is final. God bless you, Wynne dear. - Yours, Philip.“[104] His wife petitioned for restitution of conjugal rights in 1921,[105] which was granted on April 25, 1922,[106] and for divorce in the same year.[107]
Madeline Seymour and Philip Strange, 1928.
His second wife was the actress Madeline Theodorothy Seymour (1891-1873), the daughter of the painter and illustrator George Langford Seymour (active 1876-1916).[108] They had met in 1920 when they were both playing in Who’s Hooper at the Adelphi Theatre in London.[109] Seymour had just been divorced from Major Alan Gerald Reid Kellett,[110] an adventurer who had beaten her with his belt.[111] Strange, who was still married, and Seymour became secretly engaged, but the engagement was broken two years later. In 1928, when Strange returned to England for two months, they met again at the Adelphi and renewed the engagement.[112] They were married a few days later on 30 March 1928 at the Prince’s Row Register Office off Buckingham Palace Road.[113] When the couple returned from Hollywood, they lived at Cherry Tree Cottage in Nettlebed, Henley-on-Thames.[114] Later, they moved to Maple Cottage, Maple Walk, in Cooden.[115]
It is not known when Strange and Seymour separated.[116] In June 1959, Strange married Annie Louise Doble (1896-1978), née Crawford, at Paddington.[117] They remained together until his death.
Philip Strange had a son from his first marriage, Ronald Stanley Anker Simmons, who was born on May 15, 1911, at Bird Place Cottage in Henley.[118] After attending Radley College, he was a stockbroker in London and after the war became the director of Laminated Accessories Ltd.[119] and the managing director of Hordern-Richmond, Ltd, Haddenham.[120] In the 1950s, Anker Simmons emigrated to the United States and settled in Massachusetts, where he became the president of Hy-Du-Lignum Co. Inc.[121] and of Economy Tooling Products, Inc., Malden, Mass.[122] He married the actress Trilby Clark on June 1, 1932, and spent the honeymoon at Rocquebrun in the villa of his godmother, Dame Clara Butt.[123] Clark petitioned for restitution of conjugal rights in 1933.[124] In America, Anker Simmons married Fannie S. „Bay“ Echols (1909-2001). He died in 1982.[125]
Strange was a keen sportsman who took part in the Henley Regatta[126] and played tennis and golf. He was a member of the Stage Golfing Society, where he played for the Adelphi with his future wife Madeline Seymour in 1920[127] and with George Grossmith in 1922.[128] From 1937-1940, Strange was secretary of the Cooden Beach Golf Club.[129] In Hollywood, Strange participated in the tennis parties which took place every Sunday morning on the courts of Clive Brook, Ronald Colman and others.[130]
Philip Golding Simmons died on 5 January 1963 in Marlow, Buckinghamshire. He is buried in the churchyard of St. Peter and Paul in Shiplake, Oxfordshire, in front of the grave of his last wife and her first husband, Francis Joseph Pinder Rose (1892-1948).
↑„The prize for trebles … was taken by P. G. Simmons, whose singing of „My gentle child“ (Charles Kingsley) was second to none that has ever been heard at the College. - „Marlborough College: Glee and Solo Competition.“ Marlborough Times, 9 April 1898, p. 5.
↑“Mr. Philip Simmons. An Appreciation.“ Henley and South Oxford Standard, 3 April 1908, p. 5.
↑„Little Boy Blue Thrills But Little“, The Billboard, February 8, p. 5.
↑„Philip Simmons’ good tenor voice and handsome presence, as the French marquis, is likely to send many a thrill through the romantic young person.“ The Detroit Times, January 21, 1913, p. 3.
↑„Mr. Philip Simmons, a newcomer to the cast, takes Mr. Michaelis’s somewhat thankless part of the real Mr. Hooper. His singing and acting last night were excellent.“ Daily News (London), 4 May 1920, p. 7.
↑„… and Mr Philip Simmons, in the part of a gentleman who was required to say „Cherrio!“ on several occasions - and practically nothing else - was suitably impressive.“ - The Queen, 22 July 1922, p. 19.
↑„Prince’s Theatre. First Visit of „Sally“ to Bristol“. Western Daily Press, 5. December 1922, p. 9.
↑„A Cinderella Up-To-Date: Patricia at his Majesty’s“. Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 29. November 1924, p. 9. See also „A Peep at „Patricia“ - The Musical Comedy at His Majesty’s Theatre London (1924)“, where Strange, as the jealous husband, can be seen standing on the left.
↑„Signs with Paramount“, Moving Picture World, May 14, 1927, p. 99.
↑„The Popular Sin. Brillant English Actors in Marriage Drama“. London Daily Chronicle, 10 February 1927, p. 5.
↑„Philip Strange … really make [sic] his first bid for film fame in „Broadway Nights“ with one of the most finished characterizations seen in Eastern projection rooms in many a month.“ Spargo, John S. „All Leave East But Kane Company. Paramount, Pathe Lots to Close at Once“, Exhibitors Herald, March 26, 1927, p. 35.
↑St. John-Brenon, Aileen. „Manhattan Medley“, Picture-Play Magazine, June 1927, p. 52.
↑„Man Power“. Moving Picture World, August 6, 1927, p. 415.
↑„Richard Dix in „Sporting Goods““, The Film Daily, February 19, 1928, p. 8.
↑„… when she was amorously sparring with and stalling the aggressive Count Varesky (Philip Strange turned in a good piece of work in that one scene)“. „Loves of an Actress“, Variety, August 1, 1928, p. 18.
↑„English actor returning“, The Bioscope, 16 February 1928, p. 36.
↑Colman, Juliet Benita. Ronald Colman: A Very Private Person. New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1975, p. 79 and 120.
↑P. L. Mannock, „Ronald Returns“, Picturegoer, 1 April 1928, p. 10.
↑„News from the Outposts“. The Bioscope, 19 April 1928, p. 28.
↑„Film Reviews. The Rescue“. Variety, January 16, 1929, p. 14.
↑„Strange as the heavy stands out for his work“. „Opinions on Pictures. Behind That Curtain“, Motion Picture News, July 6, 1929, p. 124.
↑„Wall Street“. Motion Picture News, November 30, 1929, p. 75.
↑„Philip Strange, with the English accent, plays the heavy and makes himself successfully obnoxious not only to his wife (Dorothy Revier) but to all the rest, including the natives.“ „Vengeance“, Variety, March 5, 1930, p. 33.
↑„Film Reviews. A Notorious Affair“. Variety, April 30, 1930, p. 35.
↑„Designing Women (M-G-M)“, Kinematograph Weekly, 22 March 1934, p. 6.
↑The film was originally titled „The Gay Lord Strathpeffer“. The Spotlight Casting Directory for Stage and Screen, London 1934, p 54; Gifford (1986), No. 09538.
↑American Machinist, Metalworking Manufacturing, vol. 107, 1963, p. 63.
↑„An Australian in Films and Follies“. The Sydney Morning Herald, 29 Aug 1935. p. 8.
↑Divorce Court File 6844, The National Archives, Kew, J 77/3152/6844.
↑“Deaths. Anker-Simmons-Bay“. The New York Times, March 20, 2001, p. 23.
↑„Henley Town and Visitors Regatta. Ladies’ and Gentlemens’ Double Punting“. Reading Standard, 23 August 1911, p. 4.
↑„Thus she and her partner had to wrestle with many bunkers, and once, when Simmons sliced his tee shot almost behind the trunk of a tree, Miss Seymour raised her eyes to Heaven and closed her lips tightly to save herself, apparently, from the great temptation of giving expression to her thoughts.“ „Golf. The Stage Golfing Society. Oscar Asche Challenge Bowl.“ The Stage, 3 June 1920, p. 6.
↑“Gee Gee Up?“. Sunday Express, 12 February 1922, p. 16.
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