Wilfred
Lucas
He was an actor, writer, director, producer, singer, noted
wit and raconteur, born in Ontario, Canada in 1871. After graduating from McGill
University he began a successful career as a classical actor on the stage. In
1908 he became caught up in the excitement of the newly formed film industry and
left for the United States to work in the “flickers,” as the silent
films were called. His first US role was the title character in Ingomar
the Barbarian, but he followed that up with work more in keeping with his
stage training, Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew and
McDuff in Macbeth. While Lucas is perhaps best known for two classic
Laurel and Hardy comedy roles, The Warden in Pardon Us and
Dean Williams in A Chump at Oxford, he had a long and varied
career, acting in nearly 400 films ranging from melodrama to farce.
In 1917 he married screenwriter and actress Bess Meredyth
with whom he would co-write and co-direct several films, including The
Romance of Tarzan starring Elmo Lincoln, and the first full-length film ever
shot in Australia, The Man From Kangaroo. Their son John Meredyth
Lucas was born in 1919. Although the marriage did not last many years, Wilfred
and Bess remained on good terms, and Bess’s new husband, director Michael
Curtiz, considered “Luke” his good-luck charm and hired him on almost
every picture.
Wilfred Lucas died in Los Angeles in 1940.
|