Richard Waring

Biography

Richard Waring was born Richard Stephens in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, the son of Thomas E. Stephens, a painter, whose portrait of Dwight D. Eisenhower hangs in the Smithsonian Gallery of Presidents. He later adopted his mother (Evelyn M. Stephens)'s maiden name, Waring, as his stage name.

Waring began his career in 1931 with Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theater in New York City in minor roles in Romeo and Juliet, Camille, and Cradle Song. In 1940 he played opposite Ethel Barrymore in The Corn is Green and later with Eva Le Gallienne and was signed to play the role in Hollywood opposite Bette Davis, but entered the army during World War II. Before that he was filmed in his best-known screen role in Mr. Skeffington (1944) as Fanny Trellis' brother Trippy.

After his war service he appeared on Broadway as the Duke of Buckingham in Henry VIII, John Shand in J. M. Barrie's What Every Woman Knows and as the Captain in George Bernard Shaw's, Androcles and the Lion.

He also appeared in many performances of the American Shakespeare Festival directed by John Houseman and at the Phoenix Theatre in New York City, playing both bit roles and major parts in many of Shakespeare's plays. He played opposite Katharine Hepburn in The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, and one performance in A Midsummer Night's Dream as Oberon before she had to leave the production.

Personal life

Waring married American actress Florida Friebus in 1934. They had one child who died in infancy. The couple divorced in 1952. Waring and his second wife, Kathy, had no children.

Waring was the brother of Peter John Stephens, a playwright and author.

Death

Waring died of a heart attack on 18 January 1993 in City Island, Bronx, New York at the age of 82.

Broadway theatre credits

Radio credits

Records