Friends of Hastings Cemetery
After touring in comic opera, he returned to London to appear at the Strand Theatre (October 1876) in the comic opera Princess Toto by W. S. Gilbert and Alfred Cellier. He remained at the Strand Theatre for three years under the management of Ada Swanborough, and appeared principally in burlesque.
In April 1879 he transferred to the Royalty, and later that year he toured the provinces as Sir Joseph Porter in Gilbert and Sullivan's HMS Pinafore.
In March 1880 he appeared at the Gaiety as Popperton in La voyage en Suisse with the Hanlon-
He was chosen by Charles Hawtrey to succeed Herbert Beerbohm Tree in the title role of the Revd Robert Spalding in The Private Secretary when that play was transferred to the Globe Theatre in May 1884: he played this part for two years and firmly established his reputation. Penley remained with Hawtrey for some years at the Globe, at the Comedy, and at the Strand, appearing in many plays of varied merit.
After this long engagement with Hawtrey had terminated he was seen at Terry's Theatre (1890) and later at the Savoy Theatre. In 1891 he returned to the Comedy Theatre for a short time.
In Charley's Aunt by Brandon Thomas—the famous farce first produced at the Royalty Theatre on 21 December 1892—Penley's remarkable impersonation of the part of Lord Fancourt Babberley became the talk of the town. The play, transferred to the Globe Theatre early in 1893, settled down to a record-
In 1898 Penley produced A Little Ray of Sunshine, by Mark Ambient and Wilton Heriot, first in the provinces and later at the Royalty Theatre (December 1898). He then acquired the lease of the Novelty Theatre, which he renamed the Great Queen Street Theatre, and opened on 24 May
His acting career ended with the run of Charley's Aunt in 1901. He retired to Woking, then to Farnham and St Leonards where he lived a quiet country life until his death, at 7 Grand Parade, St Leonards, on 11 November 1912. His funeral took place on the 13th, at the Hastings borough cemetery. Most of the large fortune which he had made from the success of Charley's Aunt was believed to have been lost in his later years, but he left more than £15,000 on his death.
Penley's face was his fortune. He had a great sense of humour; but it was the expression of his countenance and the dry, metallic quality of his voice which had such irresistible effect on his audience. He was keenly interested in charitable institutions, was an active churchman, one of the proprietors of the Church Family Newspaper, and also a prominent freemason. He was the author of “Penley on himself: the confessions of a conscientious artist” published in 1896 by J. W. Arrowsmith in Bristol .
Edition Notes
A fictionised and facetious account of the author's preparations for various theatrical roles.
Adapted from Oxford Dictionary of National Biography