| Jack Buchanan | |
|---|---|
| Born | Walter John Buchanan 2 April 1891 Helensburgh, Scotland |
| Died | 20 October 1957 (aged 66) London, England |
| Occupation | Actor, director, producer, singer |
| Years active | 1917–1957 |
Walter John "Jack" Buchanan (2 April 1891 – 20 October 1957) was a British theatre and film actor, singer, producer and director. He was known for three decades as the embodiment of the debonair man-about-town in the tradition of George Grossmith Jr. and was described by The Times as "the last of the knuts".
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Buchanan was born in Helensburgh, Scotland, the son of Walter John Buchanan Sr (d. 1902), auctioneer, and his wife, Patricia, née McWatt (d. 1936).[1] He was educated at the Glasgow Academy.
After a brief attempt to follow his late father's profession, he became a music-hall comedian under the name of Chump Buchanan and first appeared on the West End in September 1912 in the comic opera The Grass Widow at the Apollo Theatre.[1]
Buchanan's health was not robust, and he was declared unfit for military service in World War I. He appeared with some success in West End shows during the war, attracting favourable notices as a "knut"[2] in the mould of George Grossmith Jr, and achieved front rank stardom in André Charlot's 1921 revue A to Z, appearing with Gertrude Lawrence.[1] Among his numbers in the show was Ivor Novello's "And her mother came too", which became Buchanan's signature song. The show transferred successfully to Broadway in 1924.[1] For the rest of the 1920s and 1930s he was famous for "the seemingly lazy but most accomplished grace with which he sang, danced, flirted and joked his way through musical shows.... The tall figure, the elegant gestures, the friendly drawling voice, the general air of having a good time."[3]
He made his film debut in the silent cinema, in 1917 and appeared in about three dozen films in his career. In 1938, Buchanan achieved the unusual feat of starring in the London stage musical This'll Make You Whistle while concurrently filming a movie version. The movie was released while the stage version was still running; thus the two productions competed with each other. Other roles included Monte Carlo (1930), Smash and Grab (1937) and The Gang's All Here (1939). He also produced several films including Happidrome (1943) and The Sky's the Limit (1938), which he also directed. He continued to work on Broadway and the West End and took roles in several Hollywood musicals, including The Band Wagon (1953), his best-known film, in which he plays camp theatre director, Jeffrey Cordova, opposite Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse. He suffered from spinal arthritis, though this didn't stop him from performing several dance numbers with Astaire in Band Wagon.
Like David Niven, Buchanan was renowned for his portrayal of the quintessential Englishman on stage and screen. Buchanan also provided financial backing for that other son of Helensburgh, Scotland, John Logie Baird, in Logie's work to develop mechanical television. Buchanan was legendary among his colleagues for his financial generosity to less prosperous actors and chorus performers. Sandy Wilson recalled that, each year during the running of the annual Grand National horse race, Buchanan would cancel that day's performance of his current musical and would charter an excursion train to the racetrack and back, supplying meals for the entire cast and crew of his show ... and even giving them £5 each for a "flutter" on the horse of their choice!
Buchanan died in London in 1957 from spinal cancer, when he was 66 years old.
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