Roy Rene
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Roy Rene ; born Henry "Harry" van de Sluys , (born February 15, 1891 in Adelaide , Australia , † November 22, 1954 in Sydney , Australia) was an Australian comedian .
Life
The son of a Dutch immigrant took part in various acting competitions for amateurs in Adelaide as a child and appeared in the production of Sinbad the Sailor at the Royal Theater in 1905 . He sang with Ivy Scott as a boy soprano with a black face at the Tivoli Theater . After the family moved to Melbourne, he appeared in 1908 as the singer Boy Roy in James Brennan's Vaudeville at the Gaiety Theater .
In 1910 he got an extra role in James Cassius Williamson's melodrama The Whip and came with the company to Sydney. During this time he took the name Rene - after a French clown. From 1914 he worked for Ben Fuller . His duo with Nat Phillips as Stiffy And Mo was a resounding success. Stiffy and Mo performed to sold out houses in Australia and New Zealand for ten years. In 1927 the comedian duo made some recordings at Parlophone .
After separating from Phillips in 1928, Rene continued to work at Fuller's Theater with his own group Mo and his Merrymakers . In 1929 he married the actress and Soubrette Sadie Gale . After a breakdown with pleurisy while appearing on Frank Neil's revue Clowns in Clover , he appeared in mid-1930 for Hugh D. McIntosh at the Tivoli Theater on the revue Pot Luck . In 1931 Mike Connors and Queenie Paul brought him to the New Tivoli in Melbourne. In 1934 he appeared in the revue Rhapsodies of 1935 at Ernest C. Rolls ' Apollo Palace Theater . In the same year, Ken G. Hall shot the feature film Strike Me Lucky with him .
Since the late 1930s, Rene also worked for the radio. In the 1940s, ran for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation , the series The Misadventures of Mo , followed by calling the Stars and (over five years) McCackie Mansion . He had his last stage appearance in 1949 in McCackie 'Mo'ments at Harry Wren's Kings Theater in Melbourne. His autobiography Mo's Memoirs was published in 1945.
Web links
- Roy Rene in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Laughterlog - Roy Rene (with list of radio performances and discography)
- Australian Dictionary of Biography - Rene, Roy (Mo) (1891–1954)
- Live Performance Australia Hall of Fame - Roy Rene 1892–1954
- Gateway to the Australian Performing Acts - Roy Rene
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rene, Roy |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Van de Sluys, Henry (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Australian comedian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 15, 1891 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Adelaide , Australia |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 22, 1954 |
| Place of death | Sydney , Australia |