Basil Gill
British actor (1877–1955)
title: "Basil Gill" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1877-births", "1955-deaths", "male-actors-from-birkenhead", "english-male-stage-actors", "english-male-film-actors", "english-male-silent-film-actors", "20th-century-english-male-actors"] description: "British actor (1877–1955)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_Gill" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary British actor (1877–1955) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Basil Gill |
| image | Basil Gill.JPG |
| birth_date | 10 March 1877 |
| birth_place | Birkenhead, Cheshire, England, UK |
| death_date | 23 April 1955 (aged 78) |
| death_place | Hove, Sussex, England, UK |
| occupation | Stage and film actor |
| years_active | 1897–1938 |
| :: |
| name = Basil Gill | image = Basil Gill.JPG | birth_date = 10 March 1877 | birth_place = Birkenhead, Cheshire, England, UK | death_date = 23 April 1955 (aged 78) | death_place = Hove, Sussex, England, UK | othername = | occupation = Stage and film actor | years_active = 1897–1938 Basil Gill (10 March 1877 – 23 April 1955) was a British stage actor and film actor. His stage career included many roles in plays of Shakespeare.
Life
He was a son of the Rev. John Gill, of Cambridge.
His first stage appearance, in Bury, Lancashire in 1897, was in The Sign of the Cross (Wilson Barrett's most successful play); the following year he appeared in this play in London. He then toured Australia and the US with The Sign of the Cross and Ben-Hur.
In 1903 he joined Herbert Beerbohm Tree's company at His Majesty's Theatre, London, and appeared in plays of Shakespeare, playing several important roles. He left the company in 1907. He continued to perform, into the 1930s, in Shakespeare's plays during his career. As well as being a Shakespearean actor, he was regarded as a matinée idol and played romantic parts in modern plays.
His career as a film actor started with Henry VIII (1911): he appeared with Beerbohm Tree, on whose version of the play the film was based. In 1926, Gill appeared in two short films made in the De Forest Phonofilm sound-on-film process, Santa Claus as the title character, and Julius Caesar as Brutus. He appeared in many more films, the last being The Citadel of 1938.
Partial filmography
- Henry VIII (1911)
- On the Banks of Allan Water (1916)
- Missing the Tide (1918)
- The Admirable Crichton (1918)
- The Homemaker (1919)
- The Soul of Guilda Lois (1919)
- The Rocks of Valpre (1919)
- God's Good Man (1919)
- Julius Caesar (1926) short film of excerpt of Shakespeare's play, filmed in Phonofilm process
- Santa Claus (1926) with Gill as title character
- The School for Scandal (1930)
- Mrs. Dane's Defence (1933)
- The Divine Spark (1935)
- Immortal Gentleman (1935)
- Royal Cavalcade (1935)
- Rembrandt (1936)
- Gaol Break (1936)
- His Lordship (1936)
- The Crimson Circle (1936)
- I, Claudius (1937)
- St Martin's Lane (1938)
- Dangerous Medicine (1938) – Sir Francis
- The Citadel (1938)
References
References
- Obituary, ''The Glasgow Herald'', page 9, 25 April 1955.
- link. (4 March 2016 Shakespeare and the Players, accessed 18 August 2015.)
- {{IMDb name. 0318624
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20090115070234/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/19480 Basil Gill] BFI Database, accessed 18 August 2015.
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