Robert Hale

Short Biography

Birth: Mar. 25, 1874Death: Apr. 18, 1940John Robert Hale Monro, whose stage name was Robert Hale, was one of the first actors to popularise the new stage entertainment known as "revue" in London in the years preceding the First World War. His career had begun in the touring melodramas of the 19th century but he moved into musical comedy, and in 1907 joined George Edwardes' famous company at the Gaiety Theatre in London. However, his true talent turned out to be as comedian for the newly-born artform of revue, his first success in that line being in the 1912 show "Everybody's Doing It", in which he played at least twelve distinct characters and which ran for over a year. From then until he was called up towards the end of the War (thereby exchanging his then salary of 350 pounds a week for soldier's pay of 10 shillings a week!) he played as chief comedian in a series of very successful revues at the Alhambra, Leicester Square, with an act that included his celebrated impersonations of almost anybody famous (male or female) and a series of stunts that included learning the tr*peze in his forties for a skit in which he performed as a German lady tr*peze artist.Post-war he continued to play in musical comedies, farce, revue and pantomime, and in the mid-Thirties began to appear in supporting roles in talking films. He had married fellow performer Belle Reynolds in 1895, and two of their four children followed their parents onto the stage as "Binnie" (Beatrice Mary) and "Sonnie" (his elder son and namesake, John Robert) Hale. Robert Hale's final performances took place as part of the company set up by his son and daughter-in-law, the star Jessie Matthews, as Hales Productions. Their first joint production was a very successful 1939 tour of a custom-written musical, "I Can Take It", the London transfer of which was cancelled due to the outbreak of war in September 1939. Most of the cast, including Robert Hale, then transferred to a smaller-scale revue which Sonnie Hale hastily constructed to fill the gap, "Come Out to Play". Just before this production in turn transferred to the West End Robert Hale became ill, and despite an initially hopeful rally he died from cancer a month later.