Will Bernard

There are two persons known as Will Bernard associated with South African theatre and performance:

Will Bernard (fl. 1890-1920)

Will Bernard, fl. 1890-1920) was a professional theatre performer and manager who visited South Africa in 1890, apparently billed as Will R. Bernard (according to D.C. Boonzaier, 1923). References to him in other sources refer to him as William H. Bernard. Contextual evidence suggests this is the same person.

Biography

According to the Wikipedia entry on his daughter, the silent film actress Dorothy Bernard (1890–1955), William was born in Auckland, New Zealand and presumably started out as an actor in that country. He and his wife (Roy Elizabeth Ayrd) were in South Africa with the Chambers Theatre Company in 1890, their daughter being born in Port Elizabeth.

Bernard subsequently moved to Portland, Oregon in the USA, where he worked as a stock company manager and was a well-respected actor.

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

An actor listed as Will R. Bernard is mentioned by D.C. Boonzaier (1923) as a member of the Chambers Theatre Company in Cape Town in 1890, for which he was juvenile lead, playing heroic characters in plays such as The Bells of Haslemere and In the Ranks.

[[Will Bernard(19**- )

He is a South African actor and radio personality.

Sources

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Stock_actor_William_Bernard_(SAYRE_6949).jpg

D.C. Boonzaier. 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA Review, 9 March and 24 August 1923. (Reprinted in Bosman 1980: pp. 374-439.)

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: pp. 390-391, .

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