OBITUARY

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3128, 5 July 1917, Page 5

OBITUARY

SIR HERBERT BEERBOHM TREE. London, July 3. ' The death is announced of Sir Herbert Beerhohm Tree, the well-known actor.— Renter. (Rec. July i, G. 30 p.m.) '. London, July 3. Sir Herbert Beerb6hm Tree's death was unexpected. He died of heart failure while recovering from an operation to his knee, rendered necessary as the result of an accident.—Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.-Reuter. DISTINGUISHED ORNAMENT 01? THE BRITISH STAGE. Sir Herbert Beerbohm Trees' was accounted one of the most striking figures and commanding personalities on the English stage. His reputation was not one made by a series of brilliant histrionic triumphs, as was tho case with Sir Henry Irving and other great stars of the stage, but was made through an extraordinary devotion to nil that was best in the art of the theatre. For riches he cared little; he only wanted them to lavisli on his latest production, and here lie was a master. His succession of productions at the Harmarket and His Majesty's Theatres, ' London, will not l>e readily forgotten toy- those whose good fortune it was to witness them. There his genius for framing the works of the greatest dramatists of the age in the most beauti- ! l'ul settings Blossomed as a rose. In bigness of idea he had no compeer, unless it wore Belasco, of New York. Opinions differ very widely as to his place among tho histrionic great. There were those who could not distinguish in his acting that inspirational glow and magnetism which aro indispensable attributes to histrionic greatness; others, on the other hand, pl'aced him at-the head of England'e great character actors. His Grin, goire in "The Red Lamp," his Falstaft in "The-Merry-Wives," his Svengali in "Trilb'y," the Abbe in. "The Village Priest," really gave him a clear title 'to an eminent position on the stage. But it will be as a master producer of marked artistic bent that he will be best remembered at Home. His end was unfortunate. It must be remembered that Sir, Herbert Tree was the second son of Julius' AJeerbohm, a London merchant, and a grandson, of Herr Erndt Beerbohm, a timber merchant, of Bernsteinbruch, on the Baltic, and a nephew of General von TJnruh, for sixteen years aide-de-camp to AVilliam I o! Germany. The deceased actor was educated partly in England and at Schnepfeuthal College, in Germany. Whether his ancestry became irksome to him or not has not been made clear, but eighteen mouths ago he left his beloved London, crossed the Atlantic, and fulfilled, a lucrative engagement, acting for the "movies" in Los Angeles. There he played the title role in a wonderful production of "Macbeth," which wo are yet to see. amongst other pic tures. One picture in which ho figured, entitled "The Old Folks at Home," was shown in Wellington a few weeks ago. After .Los Angolos, he played a season of Shakespeare in New York with Miss Edith Wynne Mathieson as leading lady, and many of the critics saw great merit and force in his actins of Macbeth and the merry fat Knight. Sir Beerbohm Treo wns' M years of age. In 1893 ho married Maud Holt. In London he established a School of Dramatic Art, and on the death of Sir Henry Irving; lie wns selected for the position of president of the Theatrical Managers' Association. Lady Tree and his daughter, Mies Violet Tree, are alro prominent personages on tho English stflge.