Dick Cruikshanks

(b. West Ham, London, **/**/1874 – d. South Africa, **/**/1947). British-born actor and director. Richard Wheatley Cruikshanks was a stalwart of the silent film industry in South Africa. An employee of African Film Productions, he directed or co-directed 13 of the films the company produced and acted in more than half of their total output. He clearly had the confidence of I.W. Schlesinger and when Harold M. Shaw walked out before The Symbol of Sacrifice commenced production, this prestigious film was entrusted to Cruikshanks.

Career in theatre and music

In the English Census of 1901, Cruikshanks, then aged 26, was said to be in the music profession and in 1907 his military drama entitled La Vivandiere, based on the Ouida novel Under two flags, was staged in London (the cast included two horses who had “fought” in the South African War). In February 1900 he had married actress Florence Elizabeth Dentry, who had taken the stage name of Florence Creagh. According to The Stage Year Book of 1911, the couple were both members of The Sketch Association and he seems to have come out to South Africa in 1914 to act in a H.G. Brandon play. In between films he continued to appear in plays, including Goodness Gracious, Annabella (1918) with Marie Tempest, Hilda Attenboro & Harcourt Collett in the cast. In 1924 he and Florence performed in The Rising Generation for African Theatres and in July 1925 he acted in Baby Mine at His Majesty’s in Johannesburg. The following year he was part of a theatrical company that left for a tour of East Africa. He made a last film appearance in 1938 in the role of Paul Kruger in the English-language version of Die Bou van 'n Nasie / Building a nation, and was singled out by the Cape Times for a “sensitive and, at times, extremely moving portrayal”. He died in 1947, a year before his wife passed away. (FO)