Frank Harvey

Frank Harvey (22 December 1885 – 10 October 1965) was a British-born actor, producer, and writer, best known for his work in Australia.

Frank Harvey was born Harvey Ainsworth Hilton on 22 December 1885 in Earls Court, London. He was the son of playwright John Ainsworth Hilton (1842–1903), who also wrote under the name Frank Harvey, and Elizabeth Hilton. He had three sisters, Maria, Cora, and Caroline.

Harvey studied acting under Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and performed Shakespearean roles in the Lyceum Theatre in London. In 1914, he was engaged by J. C. Williamson to play in Australia with Nancye Stewart, and did not return to Britain until 1926.

In 1922 and 1923, he played the leading man in several J & N Tait productions with the Emélie Polini troupe, touring Australia and New Zealand.

When Harvey returned to Britain, after several months he was cast in The Transit of Venus and then had little difficulty finding work. He was praised for his role in Jew Suss. While acting in this role, he had a nervous breakdown and was told to take three months off.

Harvey had two plays produced, The Last Enemy and Cape Forlorn.

By 1931, he was back in Melbourne to appear in a series of plays for J. C. Williamson's, including On the Spot and a production of his own Cape Forlorn. Harvey said he preferred working on stage to screen:

Harvey returned to London in October 1931, but was back in Australia in 1933 to work for F. W. Thring at Efftee Productions as an actor and screenwriter.

In 1935, he moved to Sydney and began writing and acting for ABC radio. This led to a full-time appointment as senior drama producer in 1944, directing actors such as Queenie Ashton (in early episodes of Blue Hills), Lyndall Barbour and Nigel Lovell. He appeared as Nestor the story-teller in the Argonauts Club for most of the 1940s.[10] His play False Colours was staged by Doris Fitton's Independent Theatre.[11]

In 1936 he founded a school of voice production and dramatic art with Claude Flemming.

That year Harvey went to work for Ken G. Hall at Cinesound Productions as a studio dialogue director and in-house screenwriter. Starting with It Isn't Done (1937), Harvey wrote or co-wrote nine produced feature film scripts for Cinesound over four years, often playing small roles in them.[12]

According to one observer, Harvey's work as an actor and writer showed his bias towards the theatrical: "his scripts tend towards fulsome dialogues with witty repartee and epigram-matical statements, and his acting, particularly in Tall Timbers (1937), tends to exploit dramatic gestures and facial expressions far more intensively than was then required for screen 'naturalism'. Under Hall's direction, Harvey's dialogues were simplified and images allowed to express more of the script's content; his acting too became increasingly restrained as he adjusted to the demands of the film medium."[13]

In 1941, Harvey signed a contract with ABC to work on radio.[14]

During World War II, Harvey served in the Volunteer Defence Corps until 1944, when he left the army and went under contract to ABC as a radio actor and producer.[15][16] He eventually became ABC's head of radio drama.[17]

By the time Harvey retired in 1952, he had directed hundreds of radio plays.[18]

He married Grace Ackerman in 1910 and divorced her in 1923 on grounds of desertion.[19] On 3 April 1924 he married Helen Rosamond "Bobbie" McMillan, an actress with the Emélie Polini troupe and daughter of Sir William McMillan, Minister for Railways in New South Wales, Australia.[20][21]

A son (1912–1981) by his first marriage, named Frank Harvey, was a British playwright and novelist who wrote the play Saloon Bar and screenplays for British movies, including Seven Days to Noon (1950) and I'm Alright Jack (1960).[22]

He had a daughter, Helen, by his second wife.[23]