The younger Grossmith admired the comic pianist and entertainer John Orlando Parry, who created and performed in many of the German Reed Entertainments, and he tried to emulate Parry in developing his own sketches, consisting of humorous anecdotes, mildly satirical comment, ad lib chat, and comic songs centred on the piano.

The song, with words by Grossmith's father and music by young Grossmith, concerns a photographer who broke the heart of a young lady named Miss Jenkins ; so she drank his chemicals and died.

Grossmith was followed, in the Gilbert and Sullivan comic roles, by a number of other popular performers, including Henry Lytton, Martyn Green, Peter Pratt, John Reed, and many others, who each owed a debt to Grossmith as the creator of the roles.

The critic B. W. Findon wrote, " Among the survivors of the old brigade – of the artists who thoroughly understand the requirements of farcical comedy, who know how to treat its humour with breadth, and grapple successfully with its ludicrous situations – is Mr. Weedon Grossmith.

In 1987, Warlow also performed a one-man show originally written for John Reed, called A Song to Sing, O, about George Grossmith, the comedian who originated the principal comic roles for Gilbert and Sullivan from 1877 through the 1880s.

Among his other collaborators in Britain were George Grossmith Jr., with whom he worked on Primrose ( 1924 ), Ian Hay with whom he co-wrote A Song of Sixpence ( 1930 ) and Weston and Lee, who joined him for Give Me a Ring ( 1933 ).

Instead, a " miscellaneous entertainment " was given at the Gaiety, consisting of ventriloquists, performing dogs and, coincidentally, a sketch parodying a penny reading by the young George Grossmith, who, several years later, became Gilbert and Sullivan's principal comedian.

Unhappily for Gilbert, three of his usual principal players, George Grossmith, Richard Temple and Jessie Bond, who he had originally thought would play the title character, the prince and the princess, all left the company before rehearsals began for The Grand Duke, and so he reduced the size of these roles, further changing his original conception.

Grossmith created 33 black and white line drawings for the novel.

After singing for Sullivan, upon meeting Gilbert, Grossmith wondered aloud if the role shouldn't be played by " a fine man with a fine voice ".

" Although Grossmith had reservations about cancelling his touring engagements and going into the " wicked " professional theatre ( a move that might lose him church and other engagements in the future ), and Richard D ' Oyly Carte's backers objected to casting a sketch comedian in the central role of a comic opera, Grossmith was hired.

Grossmith was a hit as the tradesmanlike John Wellington Wells, the title role in The Sorcerer, and became a regular member of Richard D ' Oyly Carte's company.

In 1894 – 95, however, Gilbert enticed Grossmith to take the role of George Griffenfeld in His Excellency, with music by Frank Osmond Carr.

In 1888 Grossmith joined the company of Richard Mansfield in Wealth, playing the role of Percy Palfreyman.

Finally, in early November 1877, the last role, that of the title character, John Wellington Wells, was filled by comedian George Grossmith.

After singing for Sullivan, upon meeting Gilbert, Grossmith wondered aloud if the role shouldn't be played by " a fine man with a fine voice ".

They praised Passmore's comic acting but were disappointed by the nervous Grossmith, commenting that he was unsuited to the role of King Ferdinand.

George Grossmith | Grossmith as Bunthorne in Patience ( opera ) | Patience

Grossmith as Bunthorne in Patience ( opera ) | Patience, 1881

George Grossmith as Bunthorne

" The makeup and costume adopted by the first Bunthorne, George Grossmith, used the velvet jacket of Swinburne, the hair style and monocle of the painter James McNeill Whistler, and knee-breeches similar to those worn by Oscar Wilde and others.

* The Cabaret Girl ( Music: Jerome Kern, Book and Lyrics: P. G. Wodehouse and George Grossmith, Jr .) London production opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on September 19 and ran for 361 performances

In late 1870, the younger Grossmith appeared on his own with a nightly spot at the " old Polytechnic " in Regent Street, where comic sketches alternated with scientific and serious lectures for the entertainment of the public.

Human Oddities and another sketch, The Yellow Dwarf, were successful for Grossmith, and he took the former work on tour for six months.

On 14 February 1872, Grossmith gave a sketch parody of a penny reading at the Gaiety Theatre, London, since on Ash Wednesday, theatres refrained from presenting costumed performances out of respect for the holiday.

Grossmith had appeared in charity performances of Trial by Jury, where both Sullivan and Gilbert had seen him ( indeed, Gilbert had directed one such performance, in which Grossmith played the judge ), and Gilbert had earlier commented favourably on his performance in Tom Robertson's Society at the Gallery of Illustration.

Cecil reminded Sullivan about Grossmith, and Sullivan seized on the idea.

Grossmith left the D ' Oyly Carte company near the end of the original run of The Yeomen of the Guard on 17 August 1889 and resumed his career entertaining at the piano, which he continued to do for more than 15 years afterwards.

In his will, dated 26 October 1908, Grossmith left small bequests to a variety of charities and persons ; 2, 000 pounds, artworks and heirlooms to each of his children ( except that Lawrence did not receive a specific cash bequest ), his son George receiving also " two silver bowls presented to him by Sullivan and Carte the ivory baton with which he conducted the orchestra on the occasion of his said son's first appearance on the stage " in Haste to the Wedding ; and smaller bequests to his children's spouses and his nieces, nephews, grandchildren and some cousins, with the residuary estate shared equally by his children ( although the residuary estate was not large ).

Over forty of the songs that Grossmith wrote or performed in his one-man shows have been recorded by baritone Leon Berger ( a British Gilbert & Sullivan singer and Grossmith scholar ), accompanied by Selwyn Tillett ( G & S scholar ) on two CDs: A Society Clown: The Songs of George Grossmith and The Grossmith Legacy.

Grossmith trained as a painter, but was unable to make a living in that capacity and went on the stage largely for financial reasons.

Grossmith was educated at Massingham House on Haverstock Hill in Hampstead, and then at the North London Collegiate in Camden Town and Simpson's School, a local private establishment.

After a shaky start, the production became a huge success ; Grossmith appeared in it for more than 700 performances, in four different West End theatres, and he later calculated that Sebastian Smith as the leading man must have played the part about 1, 000 times in London and on tour.

Grossmith went on to appear in plays by playwrights such as Henry Arthur Jones and Jerome K. Jerome, opposite actors such as Herbert Beerbohm Tree at the Haymarket Theatre and with Mrs. John Wood at the Court Theatre.

Grossmith had appeared in charity performances of Trial by Jury, where both Sullivan and Gilbert had seen him ( indeed, Gilbert had directed one such performance, in which Grossmith played the judge ), and Gilbert had earlier commented favourably on his performance in Tom Robertson's Society at the Gallery of Illustration.

The London production opened in the West End on March 11, 1925 at the Palace Theatre, where it starred Binnie Hale, Joseph Coyne and George Grossmith, Jr. and became a hit, running for 665 performances.

During this period, Carte also presented various companion pieces with the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, including the 1877 revival of Dora's Dream by Arthur Cecil and Alfred Cellier ; The Spectre Knight ( 1878 ); revivals of Trial by Jury ; several pieces by George Grossmith beginning in 1878: Beauties on the Beach, A Silver Wedding, Five Hamlets, and Cups and Saucers ; revivals of Gilbert's After All!

As a young man, Grossmith was usually credited as " Jnr " to distinguish him from his father, especially when they performed together, but for most of his career, he was credited simply as " George Grossmith ".

His two hundred clients eventually included Charles Gounod, Jacques Offenbach, Adelina Patti, Mario, Clara Schumann, Antoinette Sterling, Edward Lloyd, Mr. and Mrs. German Reed, George Grossmith, Matthew Arnold, James McNeill Whistler and Oscar Wilde.

* 1847 – George Grossmith, English actor and writer ( d. 1912 )

These included George Grossmith, the principal comic ; Rutland Barrington, the lyric baritone ; Richard Temple, the bass-baritone ; and Jessie Bond, the mezzo-soprano soubrette.

He collaborated with many of the leading librettists and lyricists of his era, including George Grossmith Jr., Guy Bolton, P. G. Wodehouse, Otto Harbach, Oscar Hammerstein II, Dorothy Fields, Johnny Mercer, Ira Gershwin and E. Y. Harburg.

* March 1 – George Grossmith, English actor and comic writer ( b. 1847 )

* December 7 – George Grossmith, English actor and comic writer ( d. 1912 )

* June 6 – George Grossmith, Jr., British actor ( b. 1874 )

He had his first stage success with Theodore & Co in 1916, a production by George Grossmith, Jr. and Edward Laurillard with a score composed by Novello and the young Jerome Kern.

In 1917 he wrote for another Grossmith and Laurillard production, the operette Arlette, for which he contributed additional numbers to an existing French score by Jane Vieu and Guy le Feuvre.

Mr. ( George ) Grossmith was in the same plight ".

* January Wrote and scored new song ( second act ) for Grossmith.

The rewriting of the song was prompted by a letter from Gilbert, dated 25 January: " I can ’ t help thinking that the second act would be greatly improved if the recitation before Grossmith ’ s song were omitted and the song re-set to an air that would admit of his singing it desperately – almost in a passion, the torrent of which would take him off the stage at the end.

As Gilbert had suggested to Sullivan in December 1877, " Mrs. Cripps Buttercup will be a capital part for Everard .... Barrington will be a capital captain, and Grossmith a first-rate First Lord.

" George Grossmith, playing Sir Joseph, went before the curtain to calm the panicked audience.

The Wodehouse scholar Norman Murphy believes George Grossmith, Jr. to have been the inspiration for Bertie Wooster.