Val Chard

(b. Kimberley, **/**/1909 - d. Salisbury, Rhodesia, 09/06/1962). Actor. Valentine Arthur Chard was the young boy who acted the part of the shipwrecked Dick as a child in the 1923 version of H. De Vere Stacpoole’s novel The Blue Lagoon, directed by William Bowden and Dick Cruikshanks. His young co-star was Doreen Wonfor as Emmeline and in the film they grew up to be replaced by Arthur Pusey and Molly Adair respectively. A Stage & Cinema of 29 April 1949 compares the 1923 and 1949 versions of The Blue Lagoon. It uses the following caption with one of the photographs: “At the time, the child actors’ families became friends and the children’s education was continued under one governess. Today they are married, have a child of their own, and live in Johannesburg.” Thelma Gutsche quotes Chard’s mother as saying “He has never looked at another girl since 1922”. Apparently they featured in a full page advert for Old Gold cigarettes in a Look Magazine of 30 August 1938. The couple subsequently moved to what was then Rhodesia, settling in Salisbury, where he was an electrical inspector. They eventually had three children. (FO)

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