Harcourt Collett

(b. Edmonton, Middlesex, 13/05/1884 – d. Johannesburg, 1953). British-born actor and broadcaster. Charles Harcourt Collett was born in England, but by 1918 he was in South Africa to act in Joseph Albrecht’s film The Voice of the Waters. Later that year he appeared in the play Good gracious, Annabelle, which also featured Hilda Attenboro, who had acted with him in The Voice of the Waters, as well as Marie Tempest and Dick Cruikshanks. This was followed by a role in another Albrecht film, With Edged Tools (1919), based on the novel by H. Seton Merriman. Afterwards he returned to England, but in 1933 he was back in Johannesburg, where he joined the South African Broadcasting Corporation, first as radio announcer and actor, and later as producer. He was reputed to have one of the best known voices on South African radio. (FO)