Frank Poole Dyall was born in Liverpool on the 3rd of February 1870, the youngest of four sons of Charles Dyall, the first curator of the Walker Art Gallery, and his wife Margaret Oliphant, née Robertson. Educated at the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys, he made his professional stage debut under his real name in April 1894 at the St James's Theatre, London in 'The Masqueraders' by Henry Arthur Jones. In his early years he was a member of the companies of the actor-managers George Alexander, Ben Greet, John Martin-Harvey and Johnston Forbes-Robertson. Then, again as Frank Dyall, he played a servant in Alexander's production of 'Guy Domville' in January 1895 and created the role of Merriman in 'The Importance of Being Ernest' the following month. His first Shakespearean roles were Claudius in 'Hamlet, and the Duke in 'The Merchant of Venice' in Ben Greet's company at the Olympic Theatre in May 1897. He then joined Johnson Forbes-Robertson at the Lyceum later in that year, playing Guildenstern in 'Hamlet' and Second Witch in 'Macbeth' the following year.
In the early years of the 20th century he appeared in Lewis Waller's company, and played a variety of roles, both Shakespearean and modern, before in 1905–06 touring the US in E.S. Willard's company. After returning to England, he married the actress Mary Phyllis Logan, known professionally as Concordia Merrel. They had one child, Valentine, who followed his parents into the acting profession. At about this time Dyall changed his stage name from Frank Dyall to Franklin Dyall and acted in a wide range of roles, including several Ibsen parts, playing the title role in 'John Gabriel Borkman (1910), Dr Rank in 'A Doll's House' and Judge Brack in 'Hedda Gabler', (both 1911). Of the first of these the reviewer of The Illustrated London News called Dyall's performance "splendid ... the actor has done nothing half so good heretofore and his was ... the best performance we have ever had in London of his role". In 1914 he returned to North America, touring Canada and the US with Marie Tempest's company, playing roles including Richard Whichello in 'Mary Goes First' and James Crane in 'At the Barn'. The New York Tribune found his performances "easy, natural and enjoyable". He remained in the US in early 1915, playing the paterfamilias in a new comedy, 'The Younger Generation', then, after returning to London, he appeared with Martin-Harvey at His Majesty's in 1916, as Laertes in ' Hamlet', Lucentio in 'The Taming of the Shrew', Richmond in 'Richard III' and the Duke of Exeter in 'Henry V'.
In 1918, in partnership with the Liverpool actress Mary Merrall, he ran the Abbey Theatre, Dublin for the summer season. This was the beginning a long romance. Ironically, in his middle years he had many successes playing what The Times called "saturnine villains in modern melodramas". In this genre his most notable achievements were in 'White Cargo', which was produced in May 1924, at the Playhouse, and ran for a year and a half, and in a series of Edgar Wallace crime pieces, beginning with 'The Ringer', which ran for 12 months at Wyndham's in 1926, and was followed by others over several years. In 1928 he and his first wife were divorced, and the following year he married Mary Merrall, with whom he had been living for several years.
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| In Hitchcock’s 'EASY VIRTUE' |
During his 50-year stage career he played a wide range of parts in plays from Shakespeare to modern comedy, swashbuckling costume drama and the works of Ibsen. Father and son Franklin and Valentine Dyall were among some of the artists appearing in the Shakespeare season of plays at the Manchester Hippodrome on Oxford St. Not only was Franklin an accredited actor but he also went on to produce and direct many plays. He appeared in 26 films between 1916 and 1948, as well as being the eleventh actor to portray Captain Hook in 'Peter Pan' on the stage. His best known film roles were as Thomas Cromwell in 'The Private Life of Henry VIII' (1933) with Charles Laughton and with Robert Donat in 'Easy Virtue' (1927) and also 'The Gaunt Stranger' (1931) and Fire Over England (1937).
Dyall was also an early broadcaster in both radio and television and for 2LO, London, he and Forbes-Robertson gave a Shakespearean recital in May 1925, and in August 1939 he headed the cast in two live television transmissions of 'The Ringer'. Other than these, he made few broadcasts until the 1940s, when he appeared as 'The Man In Black' in the BBC Home Service series 'Appointment With Fear'. 'The Man in Black' was played in the main by his son Valentine except in the second series where he was portrayed by Franklin. When television resumed after wartime suspension Franklin once again made two live broadcasts in 'The Ringer', and in the late 1940s he played a wide range of parts on radio, including John Gabriel Borkman, the Dream Chronicler in 'A Yank at the Court of King Arthur', Jaggers in 'Great Expectations' and his final role, Gardiner, the Lord Chancellor, in Tyrone Guthrie's adaptation of Tennyson's, 'Queen Mary', broadcast in July 1950 after his death.
Franklin had died of a heart attack on the 8th of May,1950 in Worthing, Sussex.
see also :- http://www.thefootballvoice.com/2023/04/a-history-of-liverpool-thespians-hessy.html
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