A.O. Glisson

(b. Bath, **/04/1861 – d. **/**/****). Soldier, actor. Alfred Osbourn (later Osborne) Glisson was born in Bath in the county of Somerset and in the Census of 1881 he is listed as a tripe dresser (butcher). It is not known when he came to South Africa, but he took part in the Anglo-Boer War and at various stages he was a member of the Kimberley Volunteer Regiment, the colonial volunteer unit known as Roberts’ Horse and the Corps of Cattle Rangers for Protection and Conduct of Captured Stock (June-December 1901), which presumably means that he handled the confiscated livestock of the Boer farms. He does not seem to have been a professional actor, but he appeared in at least four silent films: A Story of the Rand (Lorimer Johnston/1916), De Voortrekkers (Harold M. Shaw/1916), The Voice of the Waters (Joseph Albrecht/1918) and Allan Quatermain (H. Lisle Lucoque/1919). Little is known about him, but he married Clara Dey at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Johannesburg and she predeceased him in 1919. (FO)

Sources

Le Roux, André I. & Fourie, Lilla – Filmverlede: geskiedenis van die Suid-Afrikaanse speelfilm

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