Edmund Willard
Edmund Willard born 19 December 1884 in Brighton, Sussex, England – died 6 October 1956 in Kingston upon Thames, England, was a British actor of the 1930s and 1940s.
Born in Brighton in 1884, the nephew of Victorian era actor Edward Smith Willard, in 1920 Willard appeared in the plays of William Shakespeare at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. He appeared in Hamlet, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, Richard III, and The Taming of the Shrew.[1]
Willard's first film role was as the Fourth Party in A Window in Piccadilly (1928). His other film appearances include The Private Life of Don Juan (1934) with Douglas Fairbanks and Merle Oberon, The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934) with Leslie Howard and Raymond Massey, The Mystery of the Mary Celeste (1935) with Bela Lugosi, Van Zeeland in Rembrandt (1936) with Charles Laughton and Gertrude Lawrence, the Chief Steward in Underneath the Arches (1937) with Bud Flanagan, Chesney Allen and The Crazy Gang, the Chief of German Intelligence in Dark Journey (1937) with Vivien Leigh and Conrad Veidt, Hoots Mon! (1940) with Max Miller, Penn of Pennsylvania (1942) with Clifford Evans and Deborah Kerr, and The Young Mr Pitt (1942) with Robert Donat and Robert Morley.[2]
His television roles included appearances in Fabian of the Yard (1954), The Errol Flynn Theatre (1956) and The Scarlet Pimpernel (1956).[2]
Willard married Mabel Theresa Tebbs (1885-1974) in 1907 at Steyning in Sussex. They had a daughter, the children's author Barbara Willard, and a son, Christopher Willard (died 1944).[3]
Edmund Willard died in 1956 in Kingston, London, aged 71.
Selected filmography
- A Window in Piccadilly (1928)
- Night in Montmartre (1931)
- The Private Life of Don Juan (1934)
- The Iron Duke (1934)
- The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934)
- The Mystery of the Mary Celeste (1935)
- Moscow Nights (1935)
- King of the Damned (1935)
- Heat Wave (1935)
- Rembrandt (1936)
- The Mill on the Floss (1937)
- Dark Journey (1937)
- Underneath the Arches (1937)
- Smash and Grab (1937)
- Hoots Mon! (1940)
- The Stars Look Down (1940)
- Atlantic Ferry (1941)
- Penn of Pennsylvania (1942)
- The Young Mr Pitt (1942)
- Helter Skelter (1949)
