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Cyril Delevanti

English actor (1889–1975) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cyril Delevanti
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Harry Cyril Delevanti (23 February 1889 – 13 December 1975) was an English character actor with a long career in American films, perhaps best know for his portrayal of Nonno, the grandfather in the 1964 film of Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana.[1][2] He was sometimes credited as Cyril Delavanti or Syril Delevanti.[3][4]

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Early years

Delevanti was born on 23 February 1889 in London, to Anglo-Italian music professor Edward Prospero Richard Delevanti and his wife Mary Elizabeth (née Rowbotham).[5][6]

Career

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Delevanti had a career as an actor on the English stage and, after his emigration to the United States in 1921, performed on the American stage throughout the 1920s. His first film appearance was in Devotion (1931). In 1938, credited with his first name misspelled 'Syril', Delevanti portrayed Wing Fu in the serial Red Barry;[4] shortly thereafter, the film's director, Ford Beebe, would marry Delevanti's daughter, Kitty.[7] From the 1940s, Delevanti appeared in many small roles, frequently uncredited, in such films as Phantom of the Opera (1943), Confidential Agent (1945), Deception (1946) and Forever Amber (1947), Charlie Chaplin's Monsieur Verdoux (1947) and Limelight (1952), David and Bathsheba (1951),, Les Girls (1957), Bye Bye Birdie (1963), and Mary Poppins (1964).[8]

In 1957 he played a superstitious king (with John Banner as his concerned valet) in Adventures of Superman.[9] In 1958, Delevanti was cast as the printer Lucius Coin in all twenty-six episodes of the NBC western television series, Jefferson Drum, starring Jeff Richards.[10] He made two guest appearances on Perry Mason during the first and final (ninth) seasons of the series. In 1957 he played florist Mr. Tulloch in "The Case of the Silent Partner".[11] In 1965, he played bookie Craig Jefferson in "The Case of the Silent Six".[12]

Delevanti made guest-starring appearances on Dennis the Menace, US Marshal, The Fugitive,[13] Gunsmoke,[14] The Dick Van Dyke Show,[15] Have Gun – Will Travel,[16] The Tall Man, Bourbon Street Beat, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,[17] The Virginian, Daniel Boone,[18] Alfred Hitchcock Presents,[19] Mission: Impossible,[20] It Takes a Thief,[21] Ironside, The Untouchables, Science Fiction Theater, The Twilight Zone (in the episodes "A Penny for Your Thoughts", "The Silence", "Passage on the Lady Anne", and "A Piano in the House"),[22] Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (in the episodes "Time for Elizabeth", "Cops and Robbers", and "The Game"),[23][24][25] Peter Gunn,[26] and Dragnet.[27]

He continued to act in films, such as The Night of the Iguana (1964, nominated for a Golden Globe Award as Best Supporting Actor),[2] Mary Poppins (1964), The Killing of Sister George (1968), and Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971).[8]

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Personal life

In January 1913, Delevanti married fellow performer—and recent Arcadians co-star[28]—Eva "Kitty" Peel;[29][30][5][31] they had two children:[5] Kitty Winnifred Delevanti and Cyril Harold Delevanti Jr.[32][33][34] In the early 1950s, they operated a toy shop in the Los Angeles area.[35]

Death

Having lost his wife four months earlier,[36] Delevanti died of lung cancer on 13 December 1975, in Hollywood.[1] He was survived by his daughter and by Cecil Jr., who succumbed in November 1977.[37]

Credited filmography

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References

External links

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