J. Hartley Manners

Born in London on August 10, 1870, J. Hartley Manners was a playwright and actor of Irish family background who spent much of his working life in the United States. Before becoming known as a writer, he acted in Australia and on the English stage, gradually moving into playwriting as his theater career developed.

He is most closely associated with Peg o' My Heart, the 1912 comedy that became an enormous success and was written for his wife, actress Laurette Taylor. The play made a lasting mark on Broadway, and Manners went on to write other stage works and some screen material during the silent-film era.

Manners died on December 19, 1928. Today he is remembered chiefly as a skilled popular dramatist whose best-known play captured the tastes of its time and remained his enduring claim to fame.