Jack Montgomery

Jack Montgomery (b. **/**/1880, Mile End, London – d. Johannesburg, 13/06/1943) was an actor.

Biography

John (Jack) Montgomery was the son of James Montgomery and Marion McEwan who left for to New Zealand not long after he was born (a number of his siblings were born in Dunedin). He first came to South Africa in 1902 as a volunteer in the South Island Regiment to fight in the South African War. Before his departure he worked in the telegraph office in Dunedin. According to newspaper reports, he had a good baritone voice and in 1910 he played the title role in an amateur production of The Mikado that was staged at the Krugersdorp Town Hall and was later transferred to the Colosseum. The following year he was a gold medallist at the annual Eisteddfod and subsequently performed at numerous charity concerts. In 1914 he left for England to try his luck on the English stage, but was forced to return because he developed tuberculosis.

At various times he was a hotel proprietor and at one stage he was the manager of the Orpheum Theatre, while his brother James managed the Palladium and another brother, Sydney, ran the Bijou. He had a life-long interest in horse racing and for some time he edited the racing columns of both the Sunday Times and the Rand Daily Mail under the penname of Carbine. In 1917 he played his only known film role when he featured as Preston Fanshall opposite Mabel May in The Symbol of Sacrifice (Dick Cruikshanks/1918). In 1925 he was the local agent of the British Bloodstock Agency and became a successful businessman. Poor health plagued him at various stages of his life and in 1935 it forced him to resign as an assistant judge of the Pony and Galloway Club. When he died in 1943 his profession was given as stockbroker. (FO)

Sources

Otago Witness, 28 September 1910

Rand Daily Mail (various issues)

Sunday Times (various issues)

Le Roux, André I. & Fourie, Lilla – Filmverlede: geskiedenis van die Suid-Afrikaanse speelfilm (1982)

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5428844/?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm

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