|
St. Clair Bayfield (August 2, 1875 - May 19, 1967) was a British stage actor.〔(St. Clair Bayfield papers ) accessed 5/28/2015〕 ==Life and career== He was born to a country parson named Robarts and his fox-hunting wife, one of the three illegitimate daughters of the Earl of Ellenborough, a prominent politician in his day and Governor-General of India in the years preceding the Mutiny. St. Clair's great-grandfather was Lord Chief Justice of England. His portrait shows a likeness to St. Clair. Little is known of St. Clair's early life in England, but as a young man he sailed to New Zealand (many years later, at his 90th birthday party, he sang some of the sea shanties remembered from that voyage). While there, he tried farming and also joined a volunteer regiment called the Waikiki Rifles, sleeping every night with a gun under his pillow. Having a fine voice and physical presence, he became involved in amateur theatricals, leading eventually to his joining a professional company touring to Australia (his diary of time spent in the unsanitary city of Melbourne is among the "Bayfield Archive" preserved at Lincoln Center, New York). He next found himself acting with a company headed by the impresario, William Ben Greet, who abandoned his cast to penury in a remote corner of the United States. That led to the establishment of Actor's Equity of which St. Clair was a founding member. His subsequent stage career involved regular appearances on Broadway for several decades, usually in works by British playwrights. His prolonged affair with Florence Foster Jenkins, seven years his senior, is well known. Bayfield spent his youth in New Zealand on sheep and cattle farms. He also served as a sailor and soldier. Bayfield lived for many years (circa 1908-1944+) in an apartment on 37th Street in Manhattan, New York.〔Peters, Brooks, "(Florence, The Nightingale? )," 15 June 2006 (also appeared, but in slightly different format, in ''Opera News'' magazine)〕 Bayfield joined the Ben Greet Players in a revival of ''Twelfth Night'' that took the troupe to 56 Pennsylvania towns in 65 days during the summer of 1914. Also in the group was Sydney Greenstreet.〔Sperdakos, Paula, "(Dora Mavor Moore: Before the New Play Society )," ''Theatre Research in Canada'', Vol 10, No 1, Spring 1989〕 Bayfield lived with and managed the career of singer Florence Foster Jenkins for over 36 years.〔 Jenkins died in 1944.〔''(Coronet )'', Dec 1957〕After Jenkins' death, he married a piano teacher, Kathleen Weatherley. They lived in Larchmont, New York, where he died in 1967. He did not have children. His relationship with Florence Foster Jenkins is the basis for the upcoming biographical drama ''Florence Foster Jenkins'', where Bayfield will be portrayed by British actor Hugh Grant, with three-time Academy Award winner Meryl Streep portraying Jenkins. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「St. Clair Bayfield」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|