Jack Buchanan

Buchanan was born in Helensburgh, Dunbartonshire, Scotland, the son of Walter John Buchanan Sr (1865–1902), auctioneer, and his wife, Patricia, née McWatt (1860–1936).

He was educated at the Glasgow Academy.

After a brief attempt to follow his late father's profession and a failure at acting in Glasgow, he became a music hall comedian under the name of Chump Buchanan and appeared on the variety stage in Scotland.

Walter John Buchanan (2 April 1891 – 20 October 1957) was a Scottish theatre and film actor, singer, dancer, producer and director.

He was known for three decades as the embodiment of the debonair man-about-town in the tradition of George Grossmith Jr., and was described by The Times as "the last of the knuts."

Moving to London and adopting the name "Jack Buchanan", he first appeared on the West End in September 1912 in the comic opera The Grass Widow at the Apollo Theatre.

Hardship dogged him for a while before he became famous whilst on tour in 1915 in Tonight's the Night.

He produced and acted in his own plays both in London and New York City.

Buchanan's health was not robust, and, to his regret, was declared unfit when he attempted to enlist for military service in the First World War.

He made his film debut in the silent cinema, in 1917 and appeared in about three dozen films in his career.

For the rest of the 1920s and 1930s he was famous for "the seemingly lazy but most accomplished grace with which he sang, danced, flirted and joked his way through musical shows.... The tall figure, the elegant gestures, the friendly drawling voice, the general air of having a good time."

During the Second World War he starred in his own musical production It's Time to Dance, whose cast included Fred Emney.

The musical show was based on a book by Douglas Furber and L. Arthur Rose, and was staged at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London.

He appeared with some success in West End shows during the war, attracting favourable notices as a "knut" in the mould of George Grossmith Jr, and achieved front rank stardom in André Charlot's 1921 revue A to Z, appearing with Gertrude Lawrence.

Among his numbers in the show was Ivor Novello's "And Her Mother Came Too", which became Buchanan's signature song.

The show transferred successfully to Broadway in 1924.

On 12 June 1928, Buchanan participated in the first-ever transatlantic television broadcast.

It was conducted by Scottish engineer John Logie Baird, an important figure in the technological development of television, and a lifelong friend of Buchanan's. At the time, the few television sets that existed had been custom-built by engineers and were not available for purchase by the general public in the United Kingdom or the United States.

Buchanan's Hollywood films included Paris, The Show of Shows (1929), Monte Carlo (1930) and The Band Wagon (1953).

Other starring roles included Monte Carlo (1930), Smash and Grab (1937) and The Gang's All Here (1939).

His British films included Yes, Mr Brown (1933), Goodnight, Vienna (1932), That's a Good Girl (1933), Brewster's Millions (1935), Come Out of the Pantry (1935), When Knights Were Bold (1936), This'll Make You Whistle (1936), Smash and Grab (1937), The Sky's the Limit (1938), Break the News (1938), The Gang's All Here (1939), The Middle Watch (1940), Bulldog Sees It Through (1940), As Long as They're Happy (1955) and Josephine and Men (1955).

In 1938, Buchanan achieved the unusual feat of starring in the London stage musical This'll Make You Whistle while concurrently filming a film version.

The film was released while the stage version was still running; thus the two productions competed with each other.

His first pantomime appearance (Christmas, 1940) was as "Buttons" in Cinderella.

His productions included The Women, The Body was Well Nourished, Waltz Without End, It's Time to Dance, A Murder for a Valentine, Treble Trouble and The Lady Asks for Help.

He also produced several films including Happidrome (1943) and The Sky's the Limit (1938), which he also directed.

Buchanan's American stage appearances included: André Charlot's Revues, Charles B. Cochran's Wake Up and Dream, Pardon My English, Between the Devil and Harvey (1948).

He is best known in America for his role in the classic Hollywood musical The Band Wagon in 1953.

He continued to work on Broadway and the West End and took roles in several Hollywood musicals, including The Band Wagon (1953), his best-known film, in which he plays camp theatre director Jeffrey Cordova opposite Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse.

He suffered from spinal arthritis, though this did not stop him from performing several dance numbers with Astaire in The Band Wagon.

Buchanan's British stage appearances included A to Z, Battling Butler, Toni, Sunny, That's a Good Girl, Stand up and Sing, Mr. Whittington, This'll Make You Whistle, Top Hat and Tails, The Last of Mrs Cheyney, Fine Feathers, Canaries Sometimes Sing, Don't Listen, Ladies!, Castle in the Air, King's Rhapsody and As Long as They're Happy.

American television shows on which Buchanan appeared during the era of stores selling television sets included Max Liebman's Spotlight in 1954 and The Ed Sullivan Show.

In a British tradition of actor-management, Buchanan frequently produced his own shows, many of which were premiered in the Alhambra Theatre, Glasgow.

He was also heavily involved in the more commercial side of British show business.

He was responsible, with partners, for the building and ownership of the Leicester Square Theatre, London, and the Imperial in Brighton.

He also controlled the Garrick Theatre in the West End of London and the King's Theatre in Hammersmith.

Jack Buchanan Productions (in which his partners were J. Arthur Rank and Charles Woolf) owned Riverside Studios in Hammersmith.

He made one French film (bilingual), The Diary of Major Thompson (1955).

Buchanan was a frequent broadcaster on British radio, especially during the Second World War.

Programmes included The Jack Buchanan Show and, in 1955, the hugely popular eight-part series Man About Town.