W.F. Woodman

(b. Frome, Somerset, **/**/1882 - d. **/**/1973). Actor, theatre manager. William ("Willie") Foster Woodman played Madge Fabian's husband in her only motion picture, Fallen Leaves (Dick Cruikshanks/1920). In this film he loses her to her lover, played by Yvon Saxby. Thelma Gutsche describes Woodman as "sometime manager for the Wheelers and later theatrical manager for African Consolidated Theatres" and, in fact, in 1921 he was the front-of-house manager for the Cape Town Opera House. He was originally married to Lavinia Agnes Biggs, but in 1912 he brought a case against her and Frank Wheeler and they were subsequently divorced. Afterwards he seems to have married Doris Waite, who predeceased him. When he died in 1973, he was survived by his third wife, Mona Gladys Woodman, who died the following year. (FO)

Sources

Gutsche, Thelma - The history and social significance of motion pictures in South Africa 1895-1940

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