Father of actress, Betty Hicks.
He shares with Alastair Sim the distinction of having appeared as Ebenezer Scrooge in more than one unrelated production.
He was awarded Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in the 1935 King's Honours List for his services to drama.
He was the first British actor to appear in France during both World War I and World War II, and he was twice awarded the French Croix de Guerre for these appearances.
Hicks first performed the role of Ebenezer Scrooge on the London stage in 1901, at the age of thirty. He received very mixed reviews and was criticized for not being able to portray old age convincingly enough, something he eventually mastered. According to one source, he had played the role onstage more than 2,000 times by the time he first appeared as Scrooge on the screen (in 1913).
The role of Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" was one of his specialties. He performed it many times onstage and twice on film.
Wrote and produced 64 plays.