Frank Harvey (22 December 1885 – 10 October 1965) was a British-born actor, producer, and writer, best known for his work in Australia.
Early life
Frank Harvey was born Harvey Ainsworth Hilton on 22 December 1885 in Earls Court, London. He was the son of playwright John Ainsworth Hilton (1842–1903), who also wrote under the pen name Frank Harvey,[1] and Elizabeth Hilton. He had three sisters, Maria, Cora, and Caroline.
Career
Harvey studied acting under Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and performed Shakespearean roles in the Lyceum Theatre in London. In 1914, he was engaged by J. C. Williamson to play in Australia with Nancye Stewart, and did not return to Britain until 1926.[2]
In 1922 and 1923, he played the leading man in several J & N Tait productions with the Emélie Polini troupe, touring Australia and New Zealand.[3]
When Harvey returned to Britain, after several months he was cast in The Transit of Venus and then had little difficulty finding work. He was praised for his role in Jew Suss. While acting in this role, he had a nervous breakdown and was told to take three months off.[4]
By 1931, he was back in Melbourne to appear in a series of plays for J. C. Williamson's, including On the Spot and a production of his own Cape Forlorn.[6][7] Harvey said he preferred working on stage to screen:
An actor on the screen is not an actor at all, but a robot. In the days of the silent films, an actor could have a distinct screen personality; but now that speech has come, all that is ended. After the novelty has worn off, talking films will settle down here, as they have abroad, into a mere substitute for the silent films, and will not interfere in any way with the prosperity of the legitimate theatre. The screen should stick to the sphere in which it is really capable – the sphere of spectacular production, such as Iies outside the ambit of the legitimate stage. It is really a glorified sideshow.[8]
Harvey returned to London in October 1931,[9] but was back in Australia in 1933 to work for F. W. Thring at Efftee Productions as an actor and screenwriter.
In 1936 he founded a school of voice production and dramatic art with Claude Flemming.
Cinesound
That year Harvey went to work for Ken G. Hall at Cinesound Productions as a studio dialogue director and in-house screenwriter. Starting with It Isn't Done (1937), Harvey wrote or co-wrote nine produced feature film scripts for Cinesound over four years, often playing small roles in them.[12]
According to one observer, Harvey's work as an actor and writer showed his bias towards the theatrical: "his scripts tend towards fulsome dialogues with witty repartee and epigram-matical statements, and his acting, particularly in Tall Timbers (1937), tends to exploit dramatic gestures and facial expressions far more intensively than was then required for screen 'naturalism'. Under Hall's direction, Harvey's dialogues were simplified and images allowed to express more of the script's content; his acting too became increasingly restrained as he adjusted to the demands of the film medium."[13]
Radio
In 1941, Harvey signed a contract with ABC to work on radio.[14]
During World War II, Harvey served in the Volunteer Defence Corps until 1944, when he left the army and went under contract to ABC as a radio actor and producer.[15][16] He eventually became ABC's head of radio drama.[17]
By the time Harvey retired in 1952, he had directed hundreds of radio plays.[18]
Personal
He married Grace Ackerman in 1910 and divorced her in 1923 on grounds of desertion.[19] On 3 April 1924 he married Helen Rosamond "Bobbie" McMillan, an actress with the Emélie Polini troupe and daughter of Sir William McMillan, Minister for Railways in New South Wales, Australia.[20][21]
A son (1912–1981) by his first marriage, named Frank Harvey, was a British playwright and novelist who wrote the play Saloon Bar and screenplays for British movies, including Seven Days to Noon (1950) and I'm Alright Jack (1960).[22]
