Will Bernard
There are two persons known as Will Bernard associated with South African theatre and performance:
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Will Bernard (1864–1915)
Will Bernard 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 and a 1003 photograph of him by the Australian photographic studio Talma and Co. (Melbourne and Sydney)[1] refers to him as "the stock actor William Bernard". Contextual evidence suggests these are probably all the same person.
Biography
According to the Wikipedia entry on his daughter, the silent film actress Dorothy Bernard (1890–1955)[2], he 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 in that year.
Bernard subsequently moved to Portland, Oregon in the USA, where he worked as a stock company manager and was a well-respected actor, possibly for the Baker Theater Company[3].
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
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baker_Stock_Company
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothy_Bernard
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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Return to Main Page Dorothy Bernard (June 25, 1890 – December 14, 1955) was an American actress of the silent era.
Born Nora Dorothy Bernard in Port Elizabeth, on June 25, 1890, now part of South Africa, to William H. Bernard and Roy Elizabeth Ayrd. An only child, she spent her formative years in Portland, Oregon where her father, William H. Bernard (1864–1915), worked as a stock company manager and was a well-respected actor, and as a child actress she appeared in several plays in Portland under the stage name "Dot Bernard".
In 1905, her family moved to Los Angeles, California, and her father accepted a position to manage the Balasco theater, while she entered the film industry to appear in 87 films between 1908 and 1956.
She was married to fellow actor, A.H. Van Buren (1879–1965), on July 5, 1909 in Washington D.C., and they had one daughter.
See the Wikipedia entry[4] on her for list of her film roles.
