Casson, Christopher Thorndike (1912–96), actor, was born 20 January 1912 at Prestwich, Manchester, Lancashire, England, younger son among two sons and two daughters of Sir Lewis Casson (1875–1969) and Dame Sybil Thorndike (1882–1976), both of whom were among the foremost actors of their generation; at the time of his birth his father was directing his mother in a Manchester season. Reared in London, he made his stage debut at age three in a crowd scene in ‘Julius Caesar’ at the Old Vic, and played occasionally in small West End parts alongside his parents throughout his childhood and youth. Educated at King's College, Wimbledon, he began training at age 12 as a seaman, first in the Thames Nautical Training College aboard HMS Worcester, and then in the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. During brief service in the Royal Navy (his elder brother John pursued a distinguished naval career as sailor and airman), he became increasingly distressed by the contradiction with pacifist convictions derived under his mother's influence, and was bought out of service by his parents. Determining to enter the acting profession, he trained at Elsie Fogerty's Central School of Speech and Drama, and toured the USA in 1930 with Ben Greet's Shakespearean Company. Touring with his parents in Egypt, Palestine, Australia, and New Zealand (1931), he played the inquisitor to his mother's title role in ‘Saint Joan’, her most famous part, created for her by George Bernard Shaw (qv). He worked in repertory theatre in Liverpool, York, and Perth, and spent the 1935–6 season at the Old Vic, playing to some acclaim in the first complete British version of Ibsen's ‘Peer Gynt’, and as the Third Priest in T. S. Eliot's ‘Murder in the cathedral’.
Motivated partly by a desire to escape his parents’ lengthy theatrical shadows, he came to Dublin in 1938 to join the company headed by Hilton Edwards (qv) and Mícheál MacLiammóir (qv), which customarily played a winter residency at the Gate theatre, spring and autumn seasons at the Gaiety, and a summer tour of the provinces. He played in the company's 1939 tour of eastern Europe. He appeared at the Gate in ‘Roly Poly’ (November 1940), a controversial adaptation by Lennox Robinson (qv) of Maupassant's story ‘Boule de Suif’, about a group of French refugees from a German invasion. Set in the 1870 Franco–Prussian war, but with powerful contemporary resonance (‘so topical’, Casson remembered, ‘it was as if it was all happening in the next room’ (Fitz-Simon, 136)), the play was withdrawn at government request after protests by both the French and German legations. Casson's pacifism (he was a member of the Peace Pledge Union) probably influenced his decision to remain in neutral Ireland throughout the second world war, notwithstanding his mother's pleas to join her in anti-war agitation in Britain. He was naturalised as an Irish citizen in 1946.
Owing to the dearth of leading roles with Edwards–MacLiammóir Productions, in 1942 he joined the rival Longford Productions, which shared the Gate theatre with Edwards–MacLiammóir. He played Gayev in Chekhov's ‘The cherry orchard’ (1943), the title part in ‘Uncle Vanya’ (1944), and Dr Wangel in Ibsen's ‘The lady from the sea’ (1945). His credits included numerous roles in original plays, translations, and adaptations by the company's director, Edward Pakenham, Lord Longford (qv), and his wife, Christine Pakenham (qv). He appeared in the former's ‘Oedipus the tyrant’, as the prophet Teiresias alongside Anew McMaster (qv) in the title role (1942), and in Christine's most successful play, ‘Tankardstown’ (1948). A natural wit, during his periods with both companies Casson wrote comic sketches for the popular Christmas harlequinades, lampooning the previous season's serious offerings. These included ‘Waters in Drimnagh; or, The geometric bus fight’, parodying German expressionism, and ‘Turkey and bones and eating and we liked it’, a parody of Gertrude Stein said to have been vastly more entertaining than the original.
Casson was an original member in 1947 of the Radio Éireann Players. He sang ballads to his own accompaniment on the Irish harp, giving recitals on radio and before live audiences. Working freelance from about 1950 in various Dublin theatres, he played a lead role with the Abbey company at the Queen's theatre in the record run of ‘This other Eden’ by Louis D'Alton (qv) (1953), and in the title role in Hofmannsthal's ‘Everyman’ at the Capitol. He worked with Edwards–MacLiammóir in several supporting roles: as Burgess in Shaw's ‘Candida’ (1956), in the title role in a modern-dress ‘Julius Caesar’ (1957), and as Brabantio in ‘Othello’ (1962). His film work included roles in Captain Lightfoot (1955), Shake hands with the devil (1959), The siege of Sidney Street (1960), Johnny Nobody (1961), Educating Rita (1983), and Frankie Starlight (1995). He became best known as Canon Browne, the benign protestant clergyman, in the long-running RTÉ television series The Riordans. Other television work included several BBC productions (Autumn sunshine (1981), Strangers and brothers (1984), and The Irish RM (1980s)), and the television film The treaty (1991). In the mid 1970s he directed a series of highly popular Shaw revivals at the Gate: ‘The devil's disciple’, ‘The doctor's dilemma’, and ‘Major Barbara’. He appeared in three plays by Ulick O’Connor in the Japanese Noh style for the 1978 Dublin theatre festival; the published text of the plays (1980) includes illustrations sketched by Casson during rehearsal. His last stage role was that of Sir William Lucas in a Gate adaptation of Jane Austen's ‘Pride and prejudice’ (1995).
Noted for a rich, mellifluous, well-trained voice, Casson was a sound, reliable presence on the Irish stage, whose acting combined an archaic melodramatic technique with the more realist modern style. His lifelong interest in mysticism influenced his approach to the craft: ‘One hopes in the theatre to get to a certain elevated point above time . . . to reach beyond ordinary life’ (Ir. Times, 24 Jan. 1995). Urbane, considerate, and charmingly unpractical, he was held in deep affection by theatrical colleagues. He married (1941) Kay O'Connell, the Gate's assistant stage designer; MacLiammóir was best man at the wedding. They had two daughters, and lived in Dublin, first at 1 Herbert St. (1940s–50s), and secondly on Strand Rd, Sandymount. Converting from Anglo-catholicism to Roman catholicism prior to the marriage, he was devout in the latter persuasion, attending Mass daily. He taught speech and drama to seminarians at All Hallows College. An hilariously entertaining raconteur of backstage life, he had a solitary, reflective streak, and enjoyed walking alone in all weathers along Sandymount strand. A widower, he died 9 July 1996 after a short illness in St Vincent's hospital. His daughter Glynis Casson became an actor in musicals, straight theatre, film, and television; her work in the latter included roles in the RTÉ dramatic series Fair city and The clinic. His daughter Bronwen Casson was stage and costume designer at the Abbey for twenty-five years, then practised as an artist specialising in photography and digital imaging.