Jimmy Mentis
Jimmy Mentis (1915?-1970) was a stage actor and occasional producer.
Contents
Biography
James Demetrius (Jimmy) Mentis was one of eight children born to Theodore Mentis and his wife, Anthippe Fardouli, who had come from Greece to South Africa. The couple settled in Johannesburg, where Theodore ran a general dealership in Kerk Street. The first known indication that his son was interested in the theatre is a credit as assistant stage manager for The Quaker Girl, performed by the Johannesburg High School Old Girls’ Club in 1939. From 1945 onwards he appeared on the stage for various theatrical groups, including the Playfair Players, the Johannesburg Repertory Players, the Johannesburg Dramatic and Operatic Society, the Company of Three and especially the Children’s Theatre, with producer Anthony Farmer frequently casting him in his productions. He also made some infrequent film appearances. His last known stage appearance dates from 1966 and he died unexpectedly on 25 December 1970.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
As performer he appeared in the revue Sextet by Anthony Farmer, Ralph Trewhela and Adam Leslie (1957) in a Johannesburg Children's Theatre production of The Three Wishes (1954), as the "Bishop of Beauvais" in the NTO production of Saint Joan, in Ever Since Eve (1958), The Fall (1960) and Treasure Island (1964).
He directed Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle at the YMCA in 1955, with designs by Anthony Farmer and starring Shirley Firth as well as a Children's Theatre production of The Circus Adventure.
Sources
Tucker, 1997. pp 79, 111.
Photographs held by NELM in various locations.
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