Thomas Pauncefort

(b. Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, **/**/1885 – d. Ealing, London **/**/1963). British stage actor

Biography

Thomas Pauncefort came from a theatrical family and was active in repertory, with the internet recording a number of appearances at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh. In 1907 he acted in When Knights Were Bold, which is probably when he met actress Eva Leonard Boyne, who at one stage was married to him. There is an archival record of him boarding a ship sailing for Yokohama in 1912 and in 1913 he acted in The Girl in the Taxi at the Victoria Theatre in Singapore. There is also a photograph of him taken “somewhere in China”. However, in October 1916 he was in Cape Town and married Rita Sauer, whose parents were Australian and who as Rita Pauncefort (and also Ponsford) acted in a number of Australian films.

Contribution to South African Theatre, Film Media and Performance

It was during his stay in South Africa that Pauncefort acted in the film Fallen Leaves (Dick Cruikshanks/1919), which starred Madge Fabian. On the stage he appeared in Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp, with Dan Thomas, Bubbly, with Billie Browne and Florence Creagh, and The Babes in the Woods, with George Taylor and Alec Kellaway, all at His Majesty's Theatre in Johannesburg (1919). During 1920/21 he was in Australia and toured with the musical Irene. Between 1923 and 1932 he was primarily in Great Britain, but in mid-1925 he was back in South Africa and appeared in the musical revue Sally, first at the Empire Theatre in Johannesburg and afterwards at the Opera House in Cape Town. IMDb lists Rita Pauncefort's Australian films as having been made between 1935 and 1959. (FO)

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