Talk:Sonnie Hale

Incorrect theatre credit?
The French Mistress - 1959 ... as John Crawley Sonnie died in 1957. Surely this is erroneous, unless he had some magic trick I don't know about! --TheoMorgan (talk) 03:32, 14 February 2011 (UTC)

It appears this has now been corrected - as he actually died in 1959, the credit appears to be fine. --TheoMorgan (talk) 23:28, 12 June 2011 (UTC)

Birth name seems to be wrong
Wikipedia lists Sonnie Hale's birth name as John Robert Hale-Munro -- after some extensive research, I'm pretty sure this is wrong and that his surname was actually Hale-Monro. The biographical data on this page was evidently taken from the relevant IMDb entry, and has since been quoted across the Web; however, it is inconsistent with the IMDb (and Wikipedia!) entries for his sister Binnie Hale and the IMDb entry for his father Robert Hale. It is also inconsistent with all the printed sources, including the Dictionary of National Biography -- where the article on Jessie Matthews states that in her 1927 revue 'A co-star was John Robert Hale Monro (Sonnie Hale)' -- Quinlan's Illustrated Directory of Film Comedy Stars, which lists him as "HALE, Sonnie (John Robert Hale-Monro)", and, so far as I recall (although in this case I omitted to take written notes and cannot be categorically certain), The Encyclopedia of British Film (ed. Brian McFarlane). The various stage plays he wrote are credited to 'Robert Monro', clearly a pseudonym derived from his full name -- see for example the Modern Theatre online database listing for the farce A French Mistress, or the listing on the Jessie Matthews home pages of her 1955 stage performance in 'A Nest of Robins', "a comedy by Robert Monro (Sonnie Hale), directed by the author".

Furthermore a microfiche check of archive issues of The Times locates a succession of contemporary references to Sonnie Hale as Monro rather than Munro: for example, the notorious divorce case in which Jessie Matthews was cited as adulterous third party alludes to "Mr. John Robert Hale Monro, the actor, whose stage-name is Sonnie Hale" (The Times, Saturday July 12 1930, p4). Reporting of Miss Matthews' own divorce case the previous year mentions "Mr. John Robert Hale Monro, professionally known as Sonnie Hale" (The Times, Friday November 22 1929, p5), and at the birth of their son the father is reported as "Mr. John Robert Hale-Monro, who acts under the name of Sonnie Hale" (The Times, Friday December 21 1934, p10).

It seems to me that a typographical error was made when the original IMDb entry for Sonnie Hale was created, and that this error has unfortunately become widespread across the Web. However this is no reason for Wikipedia's entry to be wrong....

195.8.75.39 (talk) 18:14, 1 April 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Igenlode (talk • contribs)


 * Also listed as "Hale-Monro" on his 1934 cigarette card; I feel that this change is reasonably well-grounded and am thus making the edit. Igenlode (talk) 03:27, 22 April 2009 (UTC)


 * And just for the record, it's Hale-Monro in as well... Igenlode (talk) 00:45, 29 April 2009 (UTC)

Army service?
He is listed under 'Royal Army Service Corps officers'. Any details of rank or postings? Valetude (talk) 17:15, 18 May 2022 (UTC)