Goba

(b. **/**/**** - d. **/**/1919). Actor. The single-monikered Zulu actor known as Goba was a valued member of the African Film Productions stock company during the heyday of South Africa’s silent movies. Not a young man, he was invariably cast as a loyal servant, sometimes required to put his life at risk in order to save his white mistress. Little is known about him, though it has been suggested that he came from a mission station in Zululand and had been I.W. Schlesinger’s head gardener. His known films are A Zulu’s Devotion (Lorimer Johnston/1916), De Voortrekkers (Harold M. Shaw/1916), A Border Scourge (Ralph Kimpton & Joseph Albrecht/1917) and The symbol of sacrifice (Dick Cruikshanks/1918). When, in May 1919, actress Edna Flugrath was interviewed by W.G. Faulkner, the critic of London’s Evening News, she informed him that Goba had died. Faulkner, often regarded as the United Kingdom’s first regular film critic, referred to him as “one of the greatest actors I ever saw”. (FO)

Sources

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

Evening News, London, 10 May 1919

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