A. E. Matthews as the Auctioneer Matthews, Alfred Edward [Matty] (1869–1960), actor, was born at Bridlington, Yorkshire, on 22 November 1869, the son of William Matthews (1829/30–1906) and his wife, Alice Mary Long. His father was one of the Matthews brothers of the original Christy Minstrels and his great-uncle was the famous clown Thomas Matthews, who had been a pupil of Grimaldi. He was educated at Stamford, Lincolnshire. Thereafter, according to his own story (Matthews had plenty of stories), he proceeded to an office-boy's desk in London on which were carved the initials ‘J. H. B.’, which he was told were those of Henry Irving, whose original name was Brodribb. Inspired by this coincidence he got himself a job as a theatre call-boy. He soon rose, via stage management and understudying to touring actor and, in 1889, he toured South Africa with Lionel Brough. In 1893–6 he toured Australia and then returned to the West End of London in a long list of plays. In 1909 he married Caroline May (1875–1953), divorced wife of Richard Cave Chinn and daughter of James Blackwell. Under the name May Blayney she enjoyed a relatively successful stage career. They had twin sons and a daughter; the marriage ended in divorce. In 1910 he made his first trip to New York, where he played Algernon Moncrieffe in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of being Earnest, his wife playing Cecily Cardew. By then Matty (as he was often known) was in great demand at home and overseas, and he had appeared in plays by Pinero, Galsworthy, and Barrie. After the First World War, Matthews replaced such actors as Gerald Du Maurier (in Sapper's Bulldog Drummond, 1921, New York and London), Owen Nares, or Ronald Squire. Yet, at all times, like other actors in his constellation, his star, though minor, was truefixed and constant, only waiting for the opportunity to show it had no fellow in its chosen firmament. It had to wait another twenty years. Meanwhile, however, in the twenty-five years after 1918, he was in a further thirty different plays. In 1940 he married the actress Patricia Lilian, divorced wife of William Robson Davies and daughter of Jeremiah O'Herlihy, solicitor. Her stage name was Pat Desmond. Matthews began his connection with the film industry early, being in 1916–18 managing director of the British Actors' Film Company. He regularly appeared in films, including The Lackey and the Lady (1919), Quiet Wedding (1940), Three Men in a Boat (1956), and (made shortly before his death) Inn for Trouble (1960). In 1947, in his seventy-eighth year, A. E. Matthews at last became a great star in his own right in the line of Sir Charles Hawtrey and Du Maurier—the part was the Earl of Lister, the play William Douglas-Home's The Chiltern Hundreds, the theatre the Vaudeville, where he had once been call-boy. In 1949 he went to New York in the same play (renamed Yes, M'Lord) and he then returned to make the film at Pinewood in his eightieth year. He was appointed OBE in 1951; he published Matty, his autobiography, in 1952; he repeated his success as Lord Lister in a sequel to The Chiltern Hundreds in 1954; and he went on acting in both films and plays. Aged ninety, he was indomitable to the last and working still: ‘How do I do it?’ he echoed an enquiring reporter, ‘Easy! I look in the obituary column of The Times at breakfast and, if my name's not in it, I go off to the studio.’ Matty was a playwright's dream: the grand old man of the theatre without being remotely grand; the oldest actor acting with the youngest mind; the best-dressed member of the Garrick Club, even though he would travel by underground on a wet day in a deerstalker hat and a pyjama coat over his tweed suit and gumboots. He knew more about the technique of light-comedy acting than many of his colleagues, yet, such was his spontaneity, he succeeded in giving the impression that he knew nothing at all. On stage he was as selfish as any actor ever was but in private he was kindness personified. He was crotchety but he had a heart of gold. He was unpredictable, easily bored, perhaps a shade close with the drinks, but he had as much charm as any man in any other walk of life and he loved beauty in women and animals and he encouraged youth. Matthews died at Bushey Heath on 25 July 1960. William Douglas-Home, rev. K. D. Reynolds Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

(1977) Cool toy I got for Xmas...or maybe birthday? Vaguely Darth-Vader-Esque, probably trying to cash in on the Star Wars craze. Of course I was a huge Star Wars fan myself. When I got out of the movie theatre I wanted to go home & tell my friend Todd all about it.