H.F. Maltby

In 1950, Maltby published his autobiography, Ring Up the Curtain. He died in Hove, Sussex, England at the age of 82.

Maltby continued to write film scripts and radio plays well into the 1940's.

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.

By 1919, Maltby was working on collaborations in musical theatre, adapting the libretto of a French piece for Maggie (1919), with Fred Thompson. He began to turn out comedies at a rate of two a year, with his own works, such as For the Love of Mike being adapted by Clifford Grey and Sonny Miller into a musical.

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).

On his return to Britain, Maltby wrote and performed in many plays for the West End theatre, some achieving success and transferring to Broadway. He wrote The Rotters in 1915, but it took nearly a year to get it to the provincial stage. The play was a success and transferred to the Garrick Theatre in the West End, playing for 86 performances and toured for the next decade, also being made into a film. The theme is satirical, dealing with a dysfunctional family and their minor 'sins' revolving around the father's obsessive respectability. The play received a tepid review from The Times, which found it formulaic, but it was popular with audiences. He also wrote an all-woman farce, Petticoats with women taking over the state (with the men away at war).

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.

Henry Francis Maltby (25 November 1880 – 25 October 1963) was a prolific writer for the London stage and British cinema from after the First World War, until the 1950s. He also appeared in many films.