A PROMINENT ACTOR.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 959, 28 October 1910, Page 9

A PROMINENT ACTOR.

MB. HARRY PLIMMER DISSECTED.

A series of auticles on "The Australian Mummer," written by Mr; Edmund Fishor, is appearing in the "Lono Hand." In > the current - number the writer has something to say- of Mr. Harry Plimmer, at present appearing as "The Stranger" in "The Passing of: tno Third Moor Back" at the Opera House. -Ho says:— A fortunate native (of Habriland, not' Australia) is Harry Plimmer. : He grAd-. uated in ''melodrama with Bland iiolt nearly twenty years ago, on the same night as Mr. Walter Baker first appeared wjth the company, With oiie or other manager Pliramer was always confined to melodrama until Robert Brough took him in hand. Under Brough's direction Plimmer went ...to India, China, and other foreign lands,''then,. , returning to Australia, he! was for the .first time engaged by tho Williamson "firm. •■,.'■ ' '..'. '" '' '

,The firm was then beginning to want a number of Australian mummers, and Plimmer, as the leading man of a touring company, played, various kinds of ' heroes,' from , Marcus Superbus and Wilfred Denver to Claude Melnotte. Then I\q got some first-class parts in tho plays that M'Kee■;'Rankin staged for Nance. O'Neil. ■; He ' was- the councillor in "Jfagda/'-'the confidential friend of Hedda Gabler,'the Mr. Vane in ','Peg Woffington," and other people of importance. Subsequently he went to America for pleasure,'.and remained to act for eight months •as Mario in a ° "La ..Tpsca" com■puny.'• ;■-.■-. ■, .::.. ; ■■;";■ Sinco his return to these shores Plimmer has figured prominently, on many Williamson programmes, and never has ho walked through a part more effectively; than in.. "An. Englishman's Home,, where he supported the dignity of Prince Ypland, ■ of' tho invading, armj. People are apt to: say of him that he is "always Plimmer," which argues that ho puts_ a lot of personality and only a- little histrionic art into a character. Ho impersonates, .himself, .whereas. Atholvrood supplies originnl' creations. True it is that Himrner. in such ■ a part as Ingomar seemed quite misplaced; but in his misplacement'ho'was likeable. He is essentially a likoablo actor, with a good appe'ararice.and'a, telling voice. In his stiff 'manner he is' graceful'; , in his- abruptness he is easy; in his. 'coldness he is ■ ; emotional.->-NlTe. is alwnys intonselv he. : and as' ii rule , "ho' is effective.' ■ Sufficient for the part , is the mere Plimmer thereof.'