Benrimo, J(oseph) Harry

Benrimo, J[oseph] Harry (1874–1942), actor, playwright, and director. A theatrical jack‐of‐all‐trades who often employed only his surname, he made his debut in his native San Francisco in 1892, playing there until 1897, when his performance as Hop Kee, the pipe‐bowl vendor, in The First Born was seen by David Belasco, who brought him east to re‐create the role in New York. For the next two decades he appeared in important supporting roles in such plays as The Conquerors (1898), Lord and Lady Algy (1899), In the Palace of the King (1900), Adrea (1905), The Girl of the Golden West (1905), The Rose of the Rancho (1906), Beethoven (1910), and Maggie Pepper (1911). In collaboration with George C. Hazelton Jr., he wrote the enormously popular The Yellow Jacket (1912), purportedly based on several classic Chinese dramas, followed by Taking Chances (1915), which he and Agnes Morgan translated freely from a Continental comedy. In 1917 he collaborated with Harrison Rhodes on “a fantasy of Japan,” The Willow Tree. Early on he proved his skill as a director, staging not only all of his own plays but many others, especially for the Shuberts.