George Wild Galvin (20 December 1860 – 31 October 1904), better known by the stage name Dan Leno, was a leading English music hall comedian and musical theatre actor during the late Victorian era. He was best known, aside from his music hall act, for his dame roles in the annual pantomimes that were popular at London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, from 1888 to 1904.
Leno was born in St Pancras, London, and began to entertain as a child. In 1864, he joined his parents on stage in their music hall act, and he made his first solo appearance, aged nine, at the Britannia Music Hall in Coventry. As a youth, he was famous for his clog dancing, and in his teen years, he became the star of his family's act. He adopted the stage name Dan Leno and, in 1884, made his first performance under that name in London. As a solo artist, he became increasingly popular during the late 1880s and 1890s, when he was one of the highest-paid comedians in the world. He developed a music hall act of talking about life's mundane subjects, mixed with comic songs and surreal observations, and created a host of mostly working-class characters to illustrate his stories. In 1901, still at the peak of his career, he performed his "Huntsman" sketch for Edward VII at Sandringham. The monarch was so impressed that Leno became publicly known as "the king's jester".
Leno also appeared in burlesque and, every year from 1888 to 1904, in the Drury Lane Theatre's Christmas pantomime spectacles. He was generous and active in charitable causes, especially to benefit performers in need. Leno continued to appear in musical comedies and his own music hall routines until 1902, although he suffered increasingly from alcoholism. This, together with his long association with dame and low comedy roles, prevented him from being taken seriously as a dramatic actor, and he was turned down for Shakespearean roles. Leno began to behave in an erratic and furious manner by 1902, and he suffered a mental breakdown in early 1903. He was committed to a mental asylum, but was discharged later that year. After one more show, his health declined, and he died aged 43.
Galvin (20 December 1860 – 31 October 1904), better known by the stage name DanLeno, was a leading English music hall comedian and musical theatre actor during...
DanLeno and the Limehouse Golem (published in the United States as The Trial of Elizabeth Cree) is a 1994 novel by the English author Peter Ackroyd. It...
The film, an adaptation of Peter Ackroyd's 1994 murder mystery novel DanLeno and the Limehouse Golem, stars Olivia Cooke, Bill Nighy and Douglas Booth...
and Columbine. A new Mother Goose pantomime was written for the comedian DanLeno by J. Hickory Wood and Arthur Collins for performances at Theatre Royal...
DanLeno (20 December 1860 – 31 October 1904) was an English comedian and stage actor of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, famous for performing in music...
Herbert Campbell (1844–1904) a highly popular pantomime dame alongside DanLeno at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Les Dawson – (1931–1993) English comedian...
clown performance on the stage and began to be worked in, notably with DanLeno as Twankay along with Aladdin's brother Washee-Washee in 1896. The name...
Political Union suffragettes. On 20 October 1904, the music hall star DanLeno donated £625 to the hospital after his last show. He died 11 days later...
resorting to prostitution. She next starred in the film adaptation of DanLeno and the Limehouse Golem, a gothic murder mystery, opposite Bill Nighy and...
King's jester" DanLeno. Darnley's Mr Wix of Wickham toured in 1902, starting at the Borough Theatre, Stratford in July. It starred Leno in a male lead...
hall sketches include Charlie Chaplin, Stan Laurel, George Formby and DanLeno. The influential English music hall comedian and theatre impresario Fred...
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jay Leno that first aired from May 25, 1992, to May 29, 2009. It resumed...
The Jay Leno Show is an American prime time talk show hosted by Jay Leno that was broadcast by NBC from September 14, 2009 to February 9, 2010. The series...
correspondent on "The Jay Leno Show" and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. "The Dan Band" has released three albums: The Dan Band Live, the full-length...
comedy correspondent on The Jay Leno Show and continued on as a correspondent on the new The Tonight Show with Jay Leno performing all original material...
John Dee in The House of Dr Dee (1993); DanLeno, Karl Marx, George Gissing and Thomas De Quincey in DanLeno and the Limehouse Golem (1994); John Milton...
A notable, and highly successful, pantomime dame from this period was DanLeno. Beyond theatre, in the 1800s, Molly houses became a place for gay men...
Glasgow's Metropole Theatre, where Laurel first worked. His boyhood hero was DanLeno, considered one of the greatest English music hall comedians. With a natural...
provide the music for a plethora of star performers, such as Marie Lloyd, DanLeno, Little Tich, and George Leybourne. All manner of other entertainment was...
and Prejudice and Zombies Mr. Charles Bingley 2016 The Limehouse Golem DanLeno 2017 Loving Vincent Armand Roulin 2017 Mary Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley...
Limehouse Golem, an adaptation of Peter Ackroyd's 1994 murder mystery novel DanLeno and the Limehouse Golem. Goldman read the book years before she was a professional...
pantomimes at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, between 1891 and 1893 alongside DanLeno and Marie Lloyd. Born in Cudham, Kent, Little Tich began performing aged...
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