Rolf Lefebvre

Rolf Lefebvre (1916-1974) Actor.

BEING EDITED

Biography

Born in Johannesburg om 1916, he moved to England, where he studied acting, graduating from RADA in 1936.

His theatre activities in England included working with a weekly rep company that he had founded with Mary Morris in Surrey, for nine months, inter alia performing in Love from a Stranger by Agatha Christie at the Barn Theatre, Oxted, with the company called The Strange Players (possibly the company in question) in 1937. Then came “several appearances” in the West End and a tour with Frank Forbes-Robertson in The Passing of the Third Floor Back.

In 1940 he was back in South Africa working as an announcer and producer at the Johannesburg Station of the African Broadcasting Corporation. He also worked in theatre at this time, notably so at the Standard Theatre for companies such as the Munro/Inglis Company and the Gwen ffrangçon-Davies/Marda Vanne Company (between 1941 and 1946), resigning from the SABC in 1943 to concentrate on theatre.

It seems he then returned to the UK, joining the newly formed Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company for the 1948/9 season, but then came back to South Africa to do some work with the newly founded National Theatre Organisation (NTO). One play we do know he was in was Guy Butler's The Dam. (In his autobiography, Guy was very complimentary about his performance – thought he was the best thing in it.) After that he did go back to the UK and worked in television, but mostly in radio. One of his reasons for avoiding the stage was that he was having difficulty remembering his lines.

1943: He resigned from the SABC to join the company and played in all three productions, doubling as a stage manager. Squadron Leader Swanson in Flare Path; David Wylie in What Every Woman Knows; Teck de Brancovis in Watch on the Rhine. 1944: Arthur Preece in Milestones; Charles in Blithe Spirit. 7 April performing in And so to Bed, a comedy about Samuel Pepys. 27 April Marie Ney and Rolf Lefebvre play Romeo and Juliet for SABC radio.

The above is some of the information I managed to draw together. And So to Bed is a play that he did with the Munro/Inglis Company, probably between touring productions of the Gwen Ffrangçon-Davies Marda Vanne Company. I think Full House was also for them. In A Month in the Country (1946) he played Rakitin. Also 1946, he played Evan Howell in Emlyn Williams's The Wind of Heaven. He was Frank Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor (1945). I also discovered that he spent 1948/9 with the newly formed Bristol Old Vic Theatre Company. He must have come back to South Africa after that to do some work with the NTO. One play we do know he was in was Guy Butler's The Dam. (In his autobiography, Guy was very complimentary about his performance – thought he was the best thing in it.) After that he did go back to the UK and worked in television, but mostly in radio. One of his reasons for avoiding the stage was that he was having difficulty remembering his lines.

I found another entry online which I discussed with the expatriate South African playwright Nicholas Wright – who knew Gwen ffrangçon-Davies and Marda Vanne, although he had never met Rolf Lefebvre. On the basis of his friendship with David Spencer, Nicky is quite convinced that Rolf was gay. Anyway, this is on the Internet, but I will copy and paste it for you here. Radio actor/producer David Spencer had the following to say about him: ROLF LEFEBVRE was one of my closest, most loved and most loving friends as well as a superb radio actor. He really rather deserved that misleading appellation “a radio actor” as he eventually refused to act in any other medium because he could not trust himself to remember lines.

Although his voice was instantly recognisable and tempting to imitate, he was a most versatile actor, and although he could make one laugh more than most people he took his work extremely seriously, and although he thoroughly enjoyed being teased as a person, he could get quite ratty if someone mucked around at work. I must just add that he was a wise and sensitive man and a benign influence in my life.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Rolf performed for the Gwen ffrangçon-Davies / Marda Vanne Company between 1941 and 1946 at the Standard Theatre.

He has appeared in stage productions of Blithe Spirit (1944), And So to Bed (1944-5), The Merry Wives of Windsor (1945) , Full House (1945), A Month in the Country (1946), The Wind of Heaven (1946), The Dam (1952).

He moved to England where he worked in television.

Sources

Tucker, 1997. p. 13.

IMDb [1].

Notes from Anthony Akerman. E-mail correspondence 28 February, 2022.

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