Frank Cellier

Frank Cellier (1884-1948)[1] was a British actor and conductor.

Biography

Born François Cellier on 23 February, 1884 in Surbiton, London, the son of the conductor of the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, also named François Cellier. He was usually referred to as Frank Cellier.

Cellier became a distinguished and prolific British actor who made his stage debut in Sweet Lavender in 1903 and subsequently appeared in many films and innumerable plays.

In the early stages of his career, (i.e. 1903-1920), he toured in Britain, Germany, the West Indies, America and South Africa, but thereafter he made a name for himself in the West End of London, his stage appearances varying from popular West End plays to a variety of Shakespearean roles, amongst them "Hamlet", "Shylock" and "Sir Toby Belch". He continued to act on stage until 1946, at times also directing plays in which he acted.

From available records it would seem that he did not return to the screen until 15 years after his return from his tours in the East, but then made up for lost time by appearing in character roles in more than 40 films, including such productions as The 39 Steps (Alfred Hitchcock/1935), Sixty Glorious Years (Herbert Wilcox/1938) and Love on the Dole (John Baxter/1941). There was a further South African connection when he played Barney Barnato in Berthold Viertel’s film Rhodes of Africa (1936).

He had married Florence Glossop-Harris, the daughter of Sir Augustus Henry Glossop-Harris in 1910. Their daughter, Antoinette, and his son Peter, from his 1925 marriage to Phyllis Maud Shannaw, both became actors. He passed away in London on 27 September 1948.

Contribution to South African theatre, film, media and performance

Interestingly, a Francois Cellier is mentioned in the South African context by D.C. Boonzaier (1923), whom he describes as "a son of the famous conductor at the Savoy Theatre" and lists as the conductor for an operatic company brought together under the management of Wheeler and Smith, lessees of the Opera House in Cape Town. Besides Cellier, the company consisted of C.H. Workman, Fred Billington, Albert Kavanagh, Jessie Rose and Nancy Freyne. The season included performances of Iolanthe, Yeoman of the Guard, H.M.S. Pinafore and Patience.

In December 1915 Frank Cellier came out to South Africa as an actor, the leading man to Ethel Irving and opened at the Palladium Theatre in Johannesburg in The Witness for the Defence. He was to be away from England until September 1919, though in May 1917 his wife, actress Florence Glossop-Harris, came out and joined him for a tour of the Far East until they returned to South Africa in March 1918.

Under the auspices of African Theatres he also acted with Ethel Irving in, Dame Nature, The Ware Case, Lady Frederick and The Turning Point all at the Palladium Theatre (1916). This was followed by four plays with leading lady Katharine Pole at the Standard Theatre (1916), namely Kultur at Home, Tiger’s Cub, What Every Woman Knows and Caroline. He then joined A.E. Anson and Mary Malleson for Romance, The Barton Mystery and Dorothy o’ the Hall (1916/1917) at His Majesty’s Theatre. During this time he also acted in his first film, Gloria (Lorimer Johnston/1916), playing the hero opposite Mabel May. “A romance of the African diamond fields”, it was adapted from a novel by Charlotte Mansfield by Harold M. Shaw.