Lawrence B. McGill (1866–1928) was an American actor and director. At the turn of the 20th century, he was a leading man for Keystone Dramatic Company. He produced stage plays and then went on to act and direct films. He also worked for the New York Reliance-Mutual Company.
Career
Lawrence McGill was a director, writer, and actor.[1] McGill and Gertrude Shipman played a "dandy repertoire of plays" for Keystone Dramatic Company in opera houses across Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey starting by November 1899.[2][3][4][5][6] In 1909, McGill began producing plays, with Gertrude as the leading lady and Richard Gordon her new leading man, at the Lyric Theater in Buffalo, New York.[7] They opened with Dorothy Hernan of Haddon Hall, an Elizabethan period piece. Shipman operated the Gertrude Shipman and Associated Players for other players for McGill's production.[7]
McGill acted in and produced silent films between 1909 and 1918.[8] He was the director-in-chief of All-Star Company in 1913. He produced Arizona that year and other previous films.[9] He was on the board of governors of the New York Screen Club.[9] Actor George Brott featured in two films produced by McGill, The Deserted Wife and Love's Young Dream, by 1925.[10] He was brought on as a director at Champion Productions.[11] He also worked for the New York Reliance-Mutual Company.[12]
Lawrence Barrett McGill born on February 22, 1866, in Courtland, Mississippi, where he grew up.[8][1] He was the son of Iona A. Trantham and Archibald D. McGill.[8] He was married twice,[13] first to Elizabeth Amann, with whom they had a daughter, Vida Iona McGill who was born on March 19, 1894.[8][a]
He married Gertrude Shipman on November 18, 1899, in Maysville, Kentucky[14] at the Central Presbyterian Church.[13] They were both employed by the Kingston Dramatic Company and they were in the town for a production at the opera house.[13][b] Shipman and McGill had a son, Edmund Robert McGill, who was born August 18, 1904, in Connecticut.[8] They lived in New Haven, Connecticut in 1909[7] and were in Waldo, Florida in the 1920s.[8] McGill died on February 22, 1928, in Waldo.[8] Shipman died on February 14, 1960. They are both buried in the Laurel Grove Cemetery in Waldo.[8]
^Vida first lived with her paternal grandparents in Mississippi. In 1910, she was living with Shipman's parents, Robert and Elizabeth, in Frankstown, Pennsylvania.[8]
^They performed on the day of their wedding in Maysville, Kentucky.[13]
References
^ abShipman (1899-11-23). "Marriage of McGill". The News-Herald. p. 5. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
