Grafton Williams

(b. **/**/1880? – d. Johannesburg, **/**/1928). British-born stage and film actor. Originally a stage actor, Grafton Williams performed in The Lady Dandies (1907), The Count of Luxembourg (1912), The Quaker Girl (1912) and The Girl on the Film (1913). The latter show, staged at the Gaiety Theatre in London, was also taken to Broadway, where afterwards Williams featured in The Belle of Bond Street (1914) in the Shubert Theatre. He subsequently made his way to South Africa, where he appeared in six films for African Film Productions: Gloria (1919), directed by Lorimer Johnston, Copper Mask (1919), With Edged Tools (1919), Isban Israel / The Buried City (1919) and The Man Who Was Afraid (1920), all directed by Joseph Albrecht, and Prester John (1920), directed by Dick Cruikshanks. Thereafter he turned up in Australia where he acted in the films Hullo Marmaduke (1924), Jewelled Night (1925) and Painted Daughters (1925), as well as in the pantomime The New Aladdin (1926), staged at His Majesty’s in Melbourne. Subsequently he must have made his way back to South Africa where, in 1928, he apparently choked to death in his sleep as a result of taking paraldehyde, a sedative then used to induce sleep. A newspaper reporting on the inquest described him as “an unemployed Australian actor”. He was survived by his wife, Gertrude. (FO)

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