Arthur Cecil, D. G. Boucicault and Marion Terry. When the Kendals moved from the Court Theatre in Chelsea to the St. James's Theatre in the West End, Thomas went with them and remained in their company playing small roles until 1885, when he joined Rosina Vokes's company as its leading man on an American tour that lasted into the middle of 1886. On his return to London, he continued to write, producing several plays in the mid to late 1880s, and to appear in supporting roles. He first attracted significant attention in Sweet Lavender by Arthur Wing Pinero. In the role of the banker Geoffrey Wedderburn, "he at once leapt into favour as a strong and virile representative of elderly men". In 1888, two days before his fortieth birthday, Thomas married Marguerite Blanche Leverson (1865–1930), daughter of James Leverson, a diamond merchant, and his wife, Henrietta. The marriage had been long delayed because of objections on religious grounds by the Leverson family. Thomas and his wife had three children, Amy Brandon Thomas, Jevan Roderick Brandon Thomas (1898–1977), who each had theatrical careers, and Sylvia M. Brandon Thomas (born c. 1905), who did not. As a character actor, Thomas had the great advantage of a facility for regional accents. Of one performance, the critic W. A. Lewis Bettany wrote: "The dialect was of course perfect; is not our actor the one acknowledged master of dialect on the stage?" He was well received in two Scottish roles in this part of his career, Tammy Tamson in his own play A Highland Legacy (1888), and Macphail of Bullocheevin in Pinero's The Cabinet Minister (1890). As the latter, "with practically nothing to say he made the uncouth young Highlander, tied to his mother's apron strings, stand out as one of the most diverting features of the piece." In 1891, Thomas had a conspicuous artistic and financial success in a triple bill at Terry's Theatre. At the instigation of George Edwardes, he invested £1,000 in a production of three one-act plays: his own The Lancashire Sailor, Weedon Grossmith's A Commission, and Cecil Clay's A Pantomime Rehearsal. He took prominent roles in all three, displaying his versatility as "a romantic young lover, a delightfully cynical model and as the heavy, stupid Captain." The production ran for 152 performances, transferring to the Shaftesbury Theatre and making a good profit. Charley's Aunt and later years Thomas's outstanding hit