Will Bernard
There are two persons known as Will Bernard associated with South African theatre and performance:
Contents
Will Bernard (fl. 1890-1920)
Will Bernard, fl. 1890-1920) 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), 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.
Bernard subsequently moved to Portland, Oregon in the USA, where he worked as a stock company manager and was a well-respected actor.
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
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, .
Go to the ESAT Bibliography
Return to
Return to ESAT Personalities B
Return to South African Theatre Personalities
Return to The ESAT Entries
Return to Main Page
