{{Short description|Singer and actor from New Zealand}} thumb|right|Lance Fairfax in 1941. '''Lance Fairfax''' (12 April 1894 – January 1974) was a singer and actor from New Zealand, classed as a light baritone, who had a substantial career in Australia.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article121161633 |title=The Theatres |newspaper=The Referee |issue=1808 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=2 November 1921 |access-date=3 August 2022 |page=9 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
==History== Fairfax was born Lancelot [Launcelot?] Fairfax Jones in Wellington, New Zealand on 12 April 1894.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Chronological History of Australian Composers and Their Compositions |volume=II (1921–1940) |chapter=Alfred Hill |author=Stephen Pleskun}}</ref> After leaving school he began studying for qualification as a barrister, working in the office of Sir John Findlay, KC, but the Great War intervened, and he enlisted with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force.<ref name=Mail1926>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article219041269 |title=Theatre Chat |newspaper=The Daily Mail (Brisbane) |issue=7589 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=26 June 1926 |access-date=3 August 2022 |page=19 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
thumb|Lance Fairfax in 1926 He served with the Wellington Regiment (elsewhere cited as Canterbury Regiment), receiving an MC; in 1916 promoted to lieutenant, 9th regiment (Hawke's Bay),<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nzlii.org/nz/other/nz_gazette/1919/63.pdf |title=New Zealand Gazette |page=1573 |access-date=5 August 2022}}</ref> then at war's end, when the New Zealand Division moved into Cologne, he joined H. P. "Pat" Hanna's No. 1 Entertainment Unit.<ref name=diggers>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206396222 |title=The Diggers Who Faced the footlights |newspaper=The Age |issue=29,720 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=29 July 1950 |access-date=3 August 2022 |page=23 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He studied singing in London<ref name=Mail1926/> with George Uttley and Sir George Power.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58542724 |title=Stars and Stageland |newspaper=The Mail (Adelaide) |volume=15 |issue=778 |location=South Australia |date=23 April 1927 |access-date=5 August 2022 |page=16 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
Returning home in 1919, Hanna founded a revue company of 21 New Zealand ex-servicemen, which in 1920 appeared at Sydney's Theatre Royal, billed as the "Famous Digger Pierrots"{{efn|"Diggers" was a well-known synonym for Australian and New Zealand soldiers.}} for J. C. Williamson's.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15887206 |title=Advertising |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=25,681 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=27 April 1920 |access-date=3 August 2022 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}} Not to be confused with the seven-member "Diggers", an all-Australian services' revue which appeared around the same time for J. & N. Tait, at the Playhouse, Castlereagh Street.</ref> By September 1920 the "Digger Pierrots" had become the "Famous Diggers", and numbered eleven: :G. P. Hanna (Otago Regt), Lance Fairfax, Sydney Exton (Wellington Regt), aka S. Laslett Exton, Roy Simpson (Auckland Regt), Norman French (Div. Sig.), George Long (5th Div. AIF), Chris Kilner (Anzac Mounted, AIF), Johnny Marks (5th Div., A.I.F.), Will Crawford (Wellington Regt), Victor Cross (NZ Field Artillery Brigade) and Charles Stewart (Wellington Regt).<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146691638 |title=The "Famous Diggers" |newspaper=Table Talk |issue=1835 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=30 September 1920 |access-date=3 August 2022 |page=29 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
They finished their Australian tour at the Arcadia Theatre on the St Kilda esplanade,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4577089 |title=Music and Drama |newspaper=The Argus (Melbourne) |issue=23,154 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=18 October 1920 |access-date=3 August 2022 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> when their members included Hanna, Fairfax, Exton, Simpson, French, Long, Kilner, Marks, Crawford, Cross, and Stewart, also Clarice Norman and Ethel Hartley.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article165155748 |title=The Famous Diggers |newspaper=The Prahran Telegraph |volume=59 |issue=3066 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=30 October 1920 |access-date=3 August 2022 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Fairfax left the group sometime after January 1921, joining The Masqueraders for a season in New Zealand<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article146719033 |title=The Theatre and its People |newspaper=Table Talk |issue=1867 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=12 May 1921 |access-date=3 August 2022 |page=26 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> followed by vaudeville at Rickards' Tivoli Theatre.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15985212 |title=Tivoli Theatre |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |issue=26,152 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=29 October 1921 |access-date=2 August 2022 |page=16 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> :The "Famous Diggers" in February 1922 included Hanna, Exton, Simpson, Kilner and Marks mentioned above, also Clyde Fields, Myrtle Wedgwood, Bobbie Pearce, Norman French, Jessie Meadows, and Ada Pescud. The group survived to around 1930.<ref name=diggers/> In 1924 Fairfax appeared in concert with Miss Vida Castles,{{efn|Vida's birth name has not been found but was possibly sister of Florence Carter, who married Harold David James Clinton in 1911.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article206779965 |title=Family Notices |newspaper=The Age |issue=27708 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=9 February 1944 |access-date=5 August 2022 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Castles was in Perth, September 1920, playing in ''Bing Boys on Broadway'' and ''The English Pierrots'' in Melbourne, December 1920, when her child impersonations were praised. Nothing further has been found until October 1923, when she was in Brisbane, accompanied by Fairfax.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article227077330 |title=Bohemia |newspaper=Daily Mail |issue=21 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=21 October 1923 |access-date=5 August 2022 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>}} as the "Lance Fairfax Duo". It is likely she was by this time married to Fairfax.
By 1926 Fairfax had joined J. C. Williamson's Musical Comedy Company, playing in Minnie Everett's production of ''The Gondoliers'' in Melbourne as Giuseppe, to some success.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article243587674 |title=Stage & Screen |newspaper=The Herald (Melbourne) |issue=15,261 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=19 April 1926 |access-date=4 August 2022 |page=8 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He should have played Sir Richard Cholmondeley in ''The Yeomen of the Guard'' but was laid low by influenza, and Albert Tarrant had to step in at short notice.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article201644641 |title=Amusements |newspaper=The Age |issue=22,176 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=3 May 1926 |accessdate=5 August 2022 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Fairfax played Samuel in ''The Pirates of Penzance'', when both he and Bernard Manning were criticised for over-playing their parts.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article141413869 |title=Entertainments |newspaper=The Australasian |volume=CXX |issue=4,038 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=22 May 1926 |access-date=4 August 2022 |page=47 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He played Pish Tush in ''The Mikado'' and Strephon in ''Iolanthe''. Fairfax and Leo Darnton played Hilarion's companions in ''Princess Ida''.
After the Gilbert and Sullivan season he played ''The Desert Song'',<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article244076165 |title="The Desert Song" |newspaper=The Herald (Melbourne) |issue=16015 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=15 September 1928 |access-date=4 August 2022 |page=22 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> as "The Red Shadow", a part he would play over and over, and for which, with his mild-mannered ''alter ego'' Pierre Birabeau, he is best remembered.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article141354574 |title=Plays the Red Shadow |newspaper=The Australasian |volume=CXXV |issue=4,159 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=22 September 1928 |access-date=4 August 2022 |page=22 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
In July and August 1928 he played Bill Smith in ''Hit the Deck'', to excellent reviews<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article224738204 |title=Spectacular Naval Musical Comedy |newspaper=The Weekly Times (Melbourne) |issue=3175 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=4 August 1928 |access-date=5 August 2022 |page=82 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> and full houses.
In 1930 he played ''The New Moon'' as Robert Misson, opposite Marie Bremner,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article246219467 |title=A "New Moon" Resplendent |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) |issue=141 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=5 January 1930 |access-date=4 August 2022 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> on occasion replaced by Sidney Burchall. Fairfax left the ''New Moon'' company to play the rebel chief Baldassaré in ''The Maid of the Mountains'' opposite Gladys Moncrieff.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article83504085 |title="Maid" Returns |newspaper=The Daily News (Perth) |volume=XLIX |issue=17,141 |location=Western Australia |date=11 April 1930 |access-date=4 August 2022 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> By the close of that season Fairfax's contract with JCW had expired<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article244858638 |title=Lance Fairfax to Go Abroad |newspaper=The Herald (Melbourne) |issue=16,511 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=16 April 1930 |access-date=4 August 2022 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> He left aboard SS ''Moreton Bay'' for London,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article29802955 |title=Mr Lance Fairfax |newspaper=The Mercury (Hobart) |volume=CXXXII |issue=19,623 |location=Tasmania, Australia |date=28 June 1930 |access-date=4 August 2022 |page=12 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> where a chance encounter<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article225344283 |title=Lance Enters the Lists |newspaper=The Sun (Sydney) |issue=1441 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=9 November 1930 |access-date=4 August 2022 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> led to his being managed by Sir Alfred Butt.
He played the title character in the 1931 film of the musical ''The Beggar Student''.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article142425242 |title=Pictures of the Week |newspaper=The Australasian |volume=CXXXII |issue=4,346 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=23 April 1932 |access-date=4 August 2022 |page=14 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
thumb|right|Musical program for soldiers broadcast under the direction of Lance Fairfax at Palestine Broadcasting Service Studios in 1941. He played Escamillo in the 1931 film ''Carmen'' by Elstree Studios, much of which was filmed in Spain<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article147415935 |title=The Talkies and Their Stars |newspaper=Table Talk |issue=3310 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=15 October 1931 |access-date=4 August 2022 |page=18 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
In 1940 he enlisted with the British Army, serving as lieutenant-colonel in charge of an entertainment unit.<ref name=fainted>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article248017785 |title=Star's Wife Fainted on Meeting Husband |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph (Sydney) |volume=X |issue=66 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=7 June 1945 |access-date=5 August 2022 |page=5 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
==Films== *''The Beggar Student'' (1931) as Carl Romaine<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article205086113 |title=Lance Fairfax on Screen |newspaper=The Age |issue=24,018 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=4 April 1932 |access-date=2 August 2022 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> *''Carmen'' (1931) as Escamillo<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article234574817 |title="Carmen" |newspaper=Smith's Weekly |volume=XIV |issue=20 |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=25 June 1932 |access-date=2 August 2022 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
==Family== Fairfax married Vida sometime around 1922;<ref name=fainted/> they had two children: violinist<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article35980051 |title=Personnel Of Boyd Neel Orchestra |newspaper=The Advertiser (Adelaide) |location=South Australia |date=5 June 1947 |access-date=5 August 2022 |page=11 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> Bryan Fairfax (8 February 1925 – 11 January 2014),<ref name=fainted/> and Diana Vida Jean Fairfax (19 December 1927 – 28 January 2019), who appeared in the film ''Between Five and Seven''.
== Notes and references == {{Notelist}} {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fairfax, Lance}} Category:1894 births Category:1974 deaths Category:20th-century New Zealand male opera singers Category:20th-century Australian male opera singers