Hugh Buckler

Hugh Buckler
Hugh Buckler standing, from the Broadway play Getting Married (1931)
Born9 September 1881
Southampton, Hampshire, UK
Died30 October 1936 (aged 55)
Malibou Lake, California, U.S.
OccupationFilm actor
Years active1919–1936
SpouseViolet Buckler (1905–1936)[1]
ChildrenJohn Buckler

Hugh Chilman Buckler (9 September 1881 – 30 October 1936) was a British actor.[2] He was married to stage actress Violet Paget,[3] about whom little has been found, save that she was somehow related to the Marquess of Anglesey.[4] The film actor John Buckler was their son.

History

Buckler family 1914

In 1909 Buckler and Paget were in England, with George Willoughby's Farcical Comedy Company, touring Weedon Grossmith's The Night of the Party, which production was brought out to Australia by Rupert Clarke and Clyde Meynell, opening at the Princess's Theatre, Melbourne on 26 February 1910.[4]

Buckler and Paget founded Sydney's Little Theatre in 1913.

Their eight-year-old son John, or Jack, had been living in England while his parents were touring, and joined his parents sometime around August 1914. In the first few months that Jack was in Sydney and Brisbane his talent for acting became evident.[5]

Buckler, who was a reserve officer with the Royal Irish Rifles,[6] volunteered for service with the outbreak of war, and received a commission with his old regiment[7] leaving Melbourne by the R.M.S. Maloja on 12 January 1915, and saw some fighting with the 4th Battalion, Worcester Regiment. A rumor that he had a leg amputated below the knee[8] and another, that he was killed in action,[9] were without foundation but he was wounded and his wife and son left for Egypt, where he had been hospitalized, in November 1915.[10]

In London in 1919 he founded a "Bohemian" club, the "Junior Savage" (perhaps a reference to the Savage Club) in a spacious loft over 5–6 Market Street, off Jermyn Street, Piccadilly.[11]

In March 1923, while playing Decameron Nights at Drury Lane Theatre, he was charged with passing a cheque while bankrupt, but acquitted.[12] A year later Buckler and Paget were in America, with Henry Jewett's repertory company in Boston.[13] Little has been found on Paget's time in America, apart from an incident in 1926, when Buckler was in New York, playing in The Ladder, and his wife was suffering from "a bad attack of blood poisoning".[14]

In 1931 he has in New York, playing Antonio in The Merchant of Venice to Maurice Moscovitch's Shylock.[15]

In 1936 he visited his actor son John Buckler in Hollywood and the same week was signed for the part of Gainsford in Lost Horizon.[16] Father and son died together when their car left the road and plunged into Malibou Lake.[17]

Selected filmography

  • Hugh Buckler 1912
    Hugh Buckler 1912
  • Violet Paget 1912
    Violet Paget 1912

References

  1. ^ "Chicago Tribune – Historical Newspapers".
  2. ^ "Hugh Buckler". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 14 July 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2018.
  3. ^ "Personal". The Advertiser. Vol. LII, no. 16, 009. South Australia. 7 February 1910. p. 8. Retrieved 22 September 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  4. ^ a b "About People". The Age. No. 17, 127. Victoria, Australia. 4 February 1910. p. 6. Retrieved 26 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  5. ^ "Miss Violet Paget". The Daily Standard (Brisbane). No. 600. Queensland, Australia. 17 November 1914. p. 5. Retrieved 27 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  6. ^ "Called to the Colours". The Telegraph (Brisbane). No. 13, 145. Queensland, Australia. 7 January 1915. p. 6. Retrieved 18 October 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ^ "Society Gossip". The Critic (Adelaide). Vol. XVI, no. 928. South Australia. 24 November 1915. p. 22. Retrieved 26 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ^ "An Idle Woman's Diary". Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate. No. 12, 916. New South Wales, Australia. 24 March 1916. p. 7. Retrieved 18 October 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ^ "Hugh Buckler Killed in Action". The Referee. No. 1616. New South Wales, Australia. 19 December 1917. p. 14. Retrieved 26 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ^ "Gossip from Sydney". The Telegraph (Brisbane). No. 13410. Queensland, Australia. 13 November 1915. p. 14. Retrieved 26 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. ^ "Music and Drama". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 25, 589. New South Wales, Australia. 10 January 1920. p. 8. Retrieved 26 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. ^ "An Actor's Cheque". The Advertiser (Adelaide). South Australia. 9 March 1923. p. 11. Retrieved 26 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. ^ "Player's Gossip". The Herald (Melbourne). No. 14, 814. Victoria, Australia. 8 November 1924. p. 19. Retrieved 26 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. ^ "Music and Drama". The Telegraph (Brisbane). No. 16874. Queensland, Australia. 1 January 1927. p. 7. Retrieved 26 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ^ "Music and Drama". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 29, 022. New South Wales, Australia. 10 January 1931. p. 8. Retrieved 26 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. ^ "Hugh Buckler Signed Up". The Herald (Melbourne). No. 18, 419. Victoria, Australia. 28 May 1936. p. 46. Retrieved 26 June 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. ^ "Actors Drowned". The Cairns Post. No. 10, 881. Queensland, Australia. 24 December 1936. p. 13. Retrieved 22 September 2021 – via National Library of Australia.