Fred. W. Leonard

Fred. W. Leonard (fl. 1900) was an actor

Biography

Born Frederick William Watkins in London,

On 28 December 28, 1896 he married Eugenie Magnus in London, and later assumed the stage name of Fred. W. Leonard). He and his wife performed for a London stock company - probably Charles Arnold's English Comedy Company at the Strand Theatre. In a 1915 "interview" in Moving Picture World (possibly a publicity piece written by herself) Eugenie claims that she had been not only a nurse and newspaper correspondent during the Boer War in South Africa (1899-1901), but to have worked for the British Secret Service.[1] Though elements of this may be true, it does seem rather unlikely, given the arc of what appears to have been a rather busy theatrical career between 1884 and 1911. However, she and her husband (now known as Fred W. Leonard) clearly were in South Africa in 1900, as they are both listed as a member of the the Arnold company - and, as their names are not mentioned in the Australian cast, it may very well be that Arnold enlisted them to fill gaps in his cast while in Cape Town, since they were already there.

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

He was a member of the cast of What Happened to Jones (Broadhurst), performed by Charles Arnold and the touring London company, when they played in South Africa in January of 1900.

Sources

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenie_Magnus_Ingleton

Gaines, Jane. (N.D.) "Eugenie Magnus Ingleton." In Jane Gaines, Radha Vatsal, and Monica Dall’Asta, eds. Women Film Pioneers Project. New York, NY: Columbia University Libraries, 2013. <https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-0akf-p282>[2]

https://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/66638

D.C. Boonzaier, 1923. "My playgoing days – 30 years in the history of the Cape Town stage", in SA

F.C.L. Bosman. 1980. Drama en Toneel in Suid-Afrika, Deel II, 1856-1916. Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik: p.407.

Go to the ESAT Bibliography