Lyn Harding was born David Llewellyn Harding on 12 October 1867 in St Brides Wentloog, Monmouthshire, into a strict, Welsh-speaking Congregationalist family. He started out as an apprentice draper in Newport before a chance meeting with a touring theatre group on a train, in which he stood in for a sick actor, led to his first professional engagement in 1890. He later changed his stage name to Lyn, as English audiences found his real Christian name, Llewellyn, difficult to pronounce.
His career spanned forty years on the stage before he moved into British silent films, talking pictures and radio, touring as far afield as the USA, Japan, India and Burma. He had an imposing, menacing stage presence and became known for playing villains, notably Professor Moriarty in dramatisations of the Sherlock Holmes stories. His final stage performance came at the age of seventy-four, and at almost eighty he played the Welsh rebel leader Owain Glyndwr for BBC radio. He died on 26 December 1952 in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, aged eighty-five.
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Actor whose forty-year stage career led into film and radio, famed for playing Professor Moriarty.
Lyn Harding
Stage, Film and Radio Actor
Born into a Welsh-speaking family in St Brides Wentloog, Monmouthshire
Harding toured internationally, including the USA, Japan, India and Burma, and continued performing into his seventies and eighties, later appearing on BBC radio as Owain Glyndwr.
Career Highlights
Forty-year stage career, including work in the USA, Japan, India and Burma
Famed for playing Professor Moriarty in Sherlock Holmes dramatisations
Played Owain Glyndwr for BBC radio in his late seventies
ℹ️ Born David Llewellyn Harding on 12 October 1867 in St Brides Wentloog, Monmouthshire.
ℹ️ Lyn died on the 26th of December, 1952.
Born into a Welsh-speaking family in St Brides Wentloog, Monmouthshire
From: sarajay
He changed his name to Lyn to make it more acceptable to English audiences who found it hard to pronounce "Llewellyn".
From: Tynewydd87
Lyn Harding is supposed to be related to Ivor Novello, if any one knows what the connection is please contact me using the MessagePad service at this site.