Harry Nicholls

Henry Thomas Nicholls (1 March 1852 – 29 November 1926) was an English actor, comedian, songwriter and playwright, popular during the Victorian era. As an actor, he appeared in music hall, Victorian burlesques and Edwardian musical comedy. He was perhaps best known for starring in the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane's annual Christmas pantomimes, alongside Dan Leno and Herbert Campbell and as the author of long-running musicals at the Gaiety Theatre.

Biography Nicholls was born in London and was educated at The City of London School. As a youth he worked as a clerk in a railway office and spent some time as an apprentice auctioneer. He became interested in acting and made his stage debut in 1870, acting in provincial theatre where he achieved little success. His London stage debut followed on 3 October 1874, when he played the part of Honeybun at the Old Surrey Theatre in Joseph Stirling Coyne's farce Did You Ever Send Your Wife to Camberwell? Nicholls remained at the theatre for two years.

Nicholls married Lucy Jane Pettitt, sister of the dramatist Henry Pettitt, in 1878 in Islington, and they had three children. In 1879, Nicholls was engaged in a short contract at the Folly Theatre where he played comic roles in The Dragoons, Lord Mayor's Day, The First Night, and Heavy Fathers. Among the dramas in which Nicholls appeared during those years were Pluck (1881), Human Nature (1882), A Run of Luck (1885), Pleasure (1886), The Armada (1887), The Royal Oak (1888), A Million of Money (1889), A Sailor's Knot (1890), The Prodigal Daughter (1891), and A Life of Pleasure (1893). In 1894, Nicholls became contracted to the Adelphi Theatre where he appeared in, among other pieces, Fatal Card.

Writing and later life Nicholls was a popular songwriter and author; he collaborated with William Lestocq to write a three-act comedy, Jane, that first played at the Comedy Theatre, London, in 1890. It starred Charles Hawtrey, Henry Kemble, Lottie Venne and Charles Brookfield. He later achieved great success at the Gaiety Theatre with the Edwardian musical comedies A Runaway Girl (1898) and The Toreador (1901).

Nicholls died at his home, 31 Birch Grove, Acton Hill, London, He was buried in Old Chiswick Cemetery.

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