Vincent Duffey

Vincent Edward Duffey (19 June 1893 - 20 October 1951) was an American playwright, actor, stage director, and lighting designer. He is best known for co-authoring two plays staged on Broadway, The Mystery Man (1928) and The Greatest Show on Earth (1938).

Life and career

The son of longtime Bohemian Grove lighting designer J. E. Duffey,[1] Vincent Edward Duffey was born in San Francisco, California on 19 June 1893.[2] In 1911 he graduated from Berkeley High School.[3] He was educated further at the University of California.[4] He served in the United States Navy during World War I.[4] After the war he worked as a lighting designer in San Francisco.[5] In 1920 he was the lead male actor opposite Nina Moise in a production of Pendleton King's Cocaine in Los Angeles.[6] By 1923 he was well known in L.A. as a stage director, actor, lighting designer, and playwright.[1] After the death of his father in 1923[1] he succeeded him as the resident lighting designer at Bohemian Grove.[7]

With Morris Ankrum, Duffey co-authored the play The Mystery Man which was produced and directed by Gustav Blum at Broadway's Nora Bayes Theatre in 1928.[8] Duffey's play The Greatest Show on Earth was co-authored with Irene Alexander.[9] It premiered on Broadway at the Playhouse Theatre on January 5, 1938.[10] It ran there for a total of 29 performances; closing on January 29, 1938.[11]

Duffey worked as a dialect coach for films in Hollywood. He also was a member of the Bohemian Club in San Francisco.[12]

He died of heart disease at Saint Francis Hospital in San Francisco, California on 20 October 1951.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b c "J. E. Duffey Dies at Hollywood Home". Los Angeles Evening Express. August 4, 1923. p. 3.
  2. ^ Vincent Edward Duffey in the California, U.S., Death Index, 1940-1997
  3. ^ "Thirteen Finnish Business Course". The Berkeley Gazette. May 31, 1911. p. 1.
  4. ^ a b "Funeral Mass Tomorrow". The San Francisco Call Bulletin. October 22, 1951. p. 16.
  5. ^ Barry, John D. (June 22, 1920). "Ways of the World". The San Francisco Call Bulletin. p. 12.
  6. ^ Schallert, Edwin (December 16, 1920). "Mummers Workshop: New Little Theater Opens in Hollywood". Los Angeles Times. p. 31.
  7. ^ "Oriental Troupe to Appear in Prologue". The San Francisco Examiner. June 25, 1926. p. 17.
  8. ^ Mantle, Burns (January 27, 1928). "The Mystery Man Wavers; 57 Bowery A Crook Drama". New York Daily News. p. 47.
  9. ^ "Playhouse: The Greatest Show on Earth". Billboard. Vol. 50, no. 4. January 22, 1938. p. 27.
  10. ^ Brooks Atkinson (January 6, 1938). "THE PLAY; ' The Greatest Show on Earth' and 'Right This Way' Are New Openings on Broadway". The New York Times. p. 22.
  11. ^ Mantle, Burns, ed. (1938). "The Greatest Show on Earth". The Best Plays of 1937-1938 and the Year Book of the Drama in America. Dodd, Mead & Company. pp. 413–414.
  12. ^ "Vincent E. Duffey". San Francisco Chronicle. October 22, 1951. p. 15.
  13. ^ "Playwright Dies". Hanford Morning Journal. October 24, 1951. p. 2.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.