George W. Cross (c. 1873 - 12 August 1949) [1] [2] was an Australian actor and casting director. For many years he was a leading actor, producer and director on stage, including a stint in San Francisco. [3]
He first came to Australia around the turn of the 20th century and at one time managed stage actress Nellie Bramley. [4] In 1910 he played Prince Olaf in The Prince and the Beggar Maid in a tour of Australia. In the 1930s, he was in charge of casting at Cinesound Productions where his discoveries included Jocelyn Howarth and Shirley Ann Richards. [5]
In 1943 he was theatre manager at the Strand in Hobart. [6]
Thunderbolt is a 1910 film in the genre of "outlaw" films at the time that tended to glorify the life of the outlaw "Bushrangers" that roamed the Australian outback in pre-commonwealth days. Shortly after this film was made, the government of New South Wales banned the manufacture of this type of film on the basis that they were promoting crime.
Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch was an English-Australian actor of theatre, film and radio.
Eric Harold Portman was an English stage and film actor. He is probably best remembered for his roles in three films for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger during the 1940s.
Cinesound Productions Pty Ltd was an Australian feature film production company. Established in June 1931, Cinesound developed out of a group of companies centred on Greater Union Theatres that covered all facets of the film process, from production to distribution and exhibition. Cinesound Productions established a film studio as a subsidiary of Greater Union Theatres Pty Ltd based on the Hollywood model. The first production was On Our Selection (1932), which was an enormous financial success.
Shirley Ann Richards was an Australian actress and author who achieved notability in a series of 1930s Australian films for Ken G. Hall before moving to the United States, where she continued her career as a film actress, mainly as a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer starlet. Her best known performances were in It Isn't Done (1937), Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938), An American Romance (1944), and Sorry, Wrong Number (1948). In the 1930s, she was the only Australian actor under a long-term contract to a film studio, Cinesound Productions. She subsequently became a lecturer and poet.
Frank Harvey was a British-born actor, producer, and writer, best known for his work in Australia.
Arthur Shirley was an Australian actor, writer, producer, and director of theatre and film. He experienced some success as a film actor in Hollywood between 1914 and 1920.
The Squatter's Daughter is a 1933 Australian melodrama directed by Ken G. Hall and starring Jocelyn Howarth. One of the most popular Australian films of the 1930s, it is based on a 1907 play by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan which had been previously adapted to the screen in 1910.
The Silence of Dean Maitland is a 1934 Australian film directed by Ken G. Hall, and based on Maxwell Gray's 1886 novel of the same name. It was one of the most popular Australian films of the 1930s.
Albert Edward Bailey, better known as Bert Bailey, was a New Zealand-born Australian playwright, theatrical manager and stage and screen actor best known for playing Dad Rudd, in both mediums, the character from the books penned by Steele Rudd.
South West Pacific is a 1943 propaganda short Australian film directed by Ken G. Hall which focuses on Australia as the main Allied base in the South West Pacific area. Actors depict a cross section of Australians involved in the war effort.
Red Sky at Morning is a 1944 Australian melodrama set during the 19th century based on a play by Dymphna Cusack. It features an early screen performance by Peter Finch, who plays a convict who falls in love with the wife of a sea captain.
The Bushwhackers is a 1925 Australian silent film directed by Raymond Longford loosely based on Alfred Tennyson's 1864 poem Enoch Arden. It is considered a lost film.
Alfred Rolfe, real name Alfred Roker, was an Australian stage and film director and actor, best known for being the son-in-law of the celebrated actor-manager Alfred Dampier, with whom he appeared frequently on stage, and for his prolific output as a director during Australia's silent era, including Captain Midnight, the Bush King (1911), Captain Starlight, or Gentleman of the Road (1911) and The Hero of the Dardanelles (1915). Only one of his films as director survives today.
The Romance of Runnibede is a 1928 Australian silent film based on an incident in a book by Steele Rudd. Unlike many Australian silent movies, a copy of it exists today.
Fred MacDonald (1895–1968), was an Australian actor best known for playing Dave Rudd opposite Bert Bailey on stage and screen, starting with the original 1912 production of On Our Selection. He also played a similar role, Jim Hayseed, several times on screen for director Beaumont Smith.
The Squatter's Daughter is a 1910 Australian silent film based on the popular play by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan.
William Anderson was an Australian theatre entrepreneur.
Edward Irham Cole was an Australian theatrical entrepreneur and film director whose productions represented a synthesis of Wild West show and stage melodrama. He managed a theatre company, called the Bohemian Dramatic Company, that performed in semi-permanent and temporary tent theatres. During 1910 and 1911 Cole directed a number of silent films, adapted from his stage plays and using actors from his theatre company.
Allan George Davis was an Anglo-Australian actor, director for film and theatre, and producer for film and television.