Biography

Legendary Broadway star of both dramas and musicals, he created the role of Francois Villon in Rudolf Friml's "The Vagabond King" in 1925, in which he also made his sound film debut opposite Jeanette MacDonald, Lillian Roth, and Warner Oland five years later. Primarily a stage actor, he only made a few more films, most notably The Devil's Brother (1933) and Between Two Worlds (1944), and was very active on early TV.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous

Although born in Coventry when he was a young boy his family moved to Balsall Heath in Birmingham where he was educated at Dennis Road School. As a young lad he became a call boy at the newly opened Birmingham Repertory Theatre and with the hope of eventually appearing on stage he changed his surname to King, his mother's maiden name, His first stage appearance was while being a call boy when he and George Melville Cooper played two footmen in "The Return of the Prodigal" in 1914 carrying the leading man on stage and depositing him on a sofa. After appearing legitimately in further shows he moved to Edinburgh in 1916 appearing in a musical at the Royal Lyceum where he met his future wife, actress Edith Wright. He was in America by 1920 and a few years later achieved fame in the operatic musical "Rose Marie". Further success followed and in 1925 he played Francois Villon in "The Vagabond King" and later repeated the role in the 1930 film version. His childhood dreams of becoming a big stage star were coming true appearing on Broadway in 1928 in "The Three Musketeers" and two years later repeating the role in London's West End. On his return to America he took the title role in the Laurel and Hardy film " Fra Diavolo" for which he was paid $2,500 a week then he, along with James Finlayson and Thelma Todd were sent to London to promote it and must have done a good job as it grossed over a million dollars in Europe alone becoming Laurel and Hardy's biggest selling feature at the box office. In the late 40's Dennis turned to the new medium of television appearing in episodes of various television series and in 1960 a colour special of "The Mikado" with Groucho Marx,and Stanley Holloway. Inbetween he made periodic returns to Broadway including starring in Pygmalion with Gertrude Lawrence in 1946/7. In 1965 he was made the 6th president of The Players, a private social club in New York, a position he held until 1970. That year he was nominated for a Tony Award as best supporting actor in "A Patriot For Me"

- IMDb Mini Biography By: tonyman5