H.F. Maltby

Biography

Henry Francis Maltby was a South African-born playwright, theatre actor and director. A former bank clerk, he performed on stage from as early as 1899, later treading the boards of London's West End after military service in World War I. In addition to writing or adapting works for musical theatre, he also authored some 50 plays (primarily light comedies and satires), some of which were later filmed: Profit and the Loss (1917), The Rotters (1921), Just My Luck (1933), among others). Maltby wrote a number of film scripts by the early 20's, but did not act on screen until about 1934, by which time he became a prolific purveyor of comedic impersonations of pompous or apoplectic barristers, judges or military figures. His round-faced, chinless, beady-eyed countenance adapted itself with equal ease to doleful, mean or comedic personae. For that reason, he was consistently employed in diverse films ranging from Alfred Hitchcock thrillers to Will Hay farces. Maltby continued to write film scripts and radio plays well into the 1940's. His autobiography, "Ring Up the Curtain", appeared in 1950.