David Llewellyn Harding (12 October 1867 – 26 December 1952), known professionally as Lyn Harding, was a Welsh actor who spent 40 years on the stage before entering British made silent films, talkies and radio. He had an imposing and menacing stage presence and came to be cast as the villain in many films, notably Professor Moriarty in dramatisations of the Sherlock Holmes stories.
He started his career as an apprentice draper in Newport, Wales and but he was drawn to an acting career. He began giving readings from Shakespeare at a chapel in Cardiff. In 1890 a chance meeting with a touring group on a train led to him standing in for a sick actor and his first professional engagement. He opened on 28 August 1890 in The Grip Of Iron at the Theatre Royal, Bristol.[2]
His career spanned stage, silent screen, talkies and radio productions and he toured in the United States, Japan, India and Burma. He worked at different times with John Gielgud, Ralph Richardson and Anthony Quayle.
He lived for about ten years in Leverstock Green, near Hemel Hempstead where he played an active role in the local community, even staging plays and revues with fellow actors to help raise funds for a much needed parish hall. He died in London in 1952, aged 85.[5]
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