Nicholas James "Beau" HannenOBE (mil) (1 May 1881 – 25 June 1972) was a British actor of the early and mid-20th century who acted in a number of stage plays and films.[1][2]
Sir Nicholas Hannen died, in 1900, at the young age of 58 in Shanghai just before Beau turned 19. Sir Nicholas was given a funeral with full honours including a full honour guard from the crew of HMS Hermione then in harbour in Shanghai and the pallbearers at his funeral were from the crew of the boat.[5]
Architecture apprenticeship
From 1902 to 1905, Beau Hannen worked in the offices of the famous architect Edwin Lutyens as an apprentice. Lutyens designed a columbarium – the Hannen Columbarium – for the Hannen family that was completed in 1907. It still stands to this day in the graveyard of St Mary's Churchyard in Wargrave.[6] In 1907, his mother, Jessie (née Woodhouse), died and her ashes as well as his father's were interred in the columbarium.[citation needed]
Marriages and descendants
Hannen married Muriel Morland, the daughter of the late Sir Henry and Lady Morland in 1907.[7] They had two daughters and a son. One of his daughters, Hermione Hannen, was born in 1913 and presumably named after HMS Hermione; she went on to have a successful acting career and was married twice, firstly to Anthony Quayle and later to Clifford Evans.
Another daughter, June Hannen, also became an actress and spouse of the film producer Alexandre Mnouchkine; they are the parents of Ariane Mnouchkine, who had a prominent career in the French theatrical scene.[8]
Hannen's son, Peter (1908, London – 21 January 1932, London), became an actor too (A Honeymoon Adventure (1931) and The Water Gipsies (1932)), but died at the age of 23 in 1932.[9][10]
In 1922, Hannen met the actress Athene Seyler (1889–1990) and they started living together. His first wife refused him a divorce, so they were not able to marry until 1960, after his first wife had died. Seyler, however, had changed her name by deed poll to Hannen in 1928.[11]