Albert Chevalier

Infobox musical artist
Name = Albert Chevalier


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Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Albert Onesime Britannicus Gwathveoyd Louis Chevalier
Alias = Albert Knight
Born = March 21 1861 Notting Hill, London
Died = death date and age|1923|7|10|1861|3|21|mf=y
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Genre = Music hall comedy
Occupation = Actor
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Albert Onesime Britannicus Gwathveoyd Louis Chevalier (March 21 1861–July 10 1923) was an English comedian and actor.

Early life

Albert Chevalier was born in the Royal Crescent, in London's Notting Hill. The son of a French master at Kensington Grammar School, and a Welsh mother, he showed a keen interest in acting and performed "The September Gale" in a private family performance, when he was seven. In 1869, Albert premièred in public as Mark Anthony in "Julius Caesar", in an amateur performance at the local Cornwall Hall. He joined another local amateur group, the "Roscius Dramatic Club" at the age of fourteen, adopting the stage name, Albert Knight [ [http://www.jeremy-clarke.freeserve.co.uk/Chevalier.htm "Albert Chevalier and ‘My Old Dutch’" Felbridge & District History Group] accessed 21 June 2007] .

Career

In 1877, at sixteen, he was engaged as an actor under the Bancrofts in London, and for fourteen years played legitimate parts at the Court Theatre and elsewhere.

In 1891, however, he began a successful music hall career as a singer of coster songs of his own invention, a new type in which he had an immediate success, both in England and America. He subsequently organized an entertainment of his own, with sketches and songs, with which he went on tour, establishing a wide popularity as an original artist in his special line.

Chevalier performed several sentimental songs in his act; the most popular of these was "My Old Dutch", about an old man's long happy marriage to his wife. The song's title is based on Cockney rhyming slang: in this case, "Dutch" is a shortening of the phrase "Duchess of Fife" which rhymes with "wife". The singer's "old Dutch" is therefore his spouse. Chevalier also starred in a film entitled "My Old Dutch". His own "old Dutch", was his wife, Florrie, the daughter of George "Champagne Charlie" Leybourne.

Albert died July 10 1923, and is buried in Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, London, in the same plot as his father-in-law [ [http://www.arthurlloyd.co.uk/Burials.htm "Music Hall burials" (Arthur Lloyd)] accessed 29 Oct 2007] .

Bibliography

*"Before I Forget" Albert Chevalier (1902)

References

External links

Persondata
NAME= Chevalier, Albert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Chevalier, Albert Onesime Britannicus Gwathveoyd Louis
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Actor
DATE OF BIRTH= March 21 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH=Notting Hill, London
DATE OF DEATH= July 10 1923
PLACE OF DEATH=