For more than a century, the lustrous sheen of cinema has captured the hearts and minds of the public.
Following the creation of the world's first camera capable of capturing movement in 1891, early pioneers took their first tentative steps in creating what would eventually become today's massive £34.4bn movie industry. The world's first films were short, rudimentary recordings, made with simple equipment, and no experience to speak of. It was not until the early 1900s that the first real narratives began appearing in film, and as these gained popularity, the Silent Era of cinema was born.
The silent films of 1911 to 1926 were longer and more polished than the productions of previous years, and used music and sound effects. The first feature-length sound movie, The Jazz Singer, was released by Warner Bros in 1927, changing the media landscape forever, and propelling the world of cinema to even greater heights.
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As the industry continued to blossom, people were introduced to a new concept - a new, glamorous class of person whose fictional lives unfolded behind black-and-white screens: the famous movie star.
Jodie Comer, Jason Isaacs, Stephen Graham and Shaun Edwards are just some of the modern-day actors who are proud to call Liverpool home. But their road to the silver screen was paved by hundreds of other local actors dating all the way back to the birth of cinema in the late 1800s.
Here are ten pioneering Liverpool-born performers who became stars of the Silent Era of Hollywood, the famous 'Talkies' and the Golden Era of Film.
May Whitty
Dame Mary Louise Webster, known professionally as May Whitty, was born in Liverpool in June 1865. She enjoyed a long and successful stage career, performing before the Queen consort Mary of Teck in a 1922 charity production of Pride and Prejudice, before making her Hollywood debut at the age of 72 in Night Must Fall (1937). She earned an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Mrs Bramson, the bad-tempered matriarch of a small English village where a woman is found murdered. This led to several supporting roles in other films, including the titular vanishing lady in Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938).
She moved to the United States in 1939, where she continued to act until her death in 1948, aged 82.
Whitty was the first stage and film actress to be made a dame, along with opera singer Nellie Melba, in 1918 in recognition of her charitable work during WWI for the Three Arts Women's Employment Fund and the British Women's Hospitals Committee. Interestingly, she was also the granddaughter of Michael James Whitty, founder of the Liverpool Daily Post, The ECHO's sister newspaper which ran from 1855 until 2013.
Franklin Dyall
Franklin Dyall, born 1870, was the fourth son of Charles Dyall, first curator of the Walker Art Gallery. He made his professional stage debut at St James's Theatre in London in 1894, and was the first actor to portray Merriman in Oscar Wilde's famous play The Importance of Being Earnest the following year.
After the turn of the century, Dyall played a variety of both modern and Shakespearian roles, touring in Britain, America and Canada. He appeared in 26 films between 1916 and 1948, and also lent his voice to several radio productions. In 1929 he married his second wife, Mary Merral, who he remained with until his death in 1950, aged 80.
Aubrey Mallalieu
Aubrey Mallalieu was born in 1873, and was primed for a life in the spotlight, being the son of well-known stage comedian. He enjoyed a length stage career of his own before moving onto films, touring in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in the 1900s and 1910s.
His first credited film role came in 1934, when he appeared in the British comedy film What Happened to Harkness?. He went on to appear in 115 films and shorts until his death in 1948. With his distinguished appearance, white hair and glasses, he was usually cast as the typical English gentleman. His best-known productions include The Stars Look Down (1940), The Young Mr. Pitt (1942), For You Alone (1945), The Wicked Lady (1945), Frieda (1947) and The Winslow Boy (1948).
Mary Merral
Mary Merral, born Elsie Lloyd in 1890, made her first stage appearance in 1907 aged just 17. Her first leading screen role came in the form of the 1940 Irish drama Dr. O'Dowd - a film which has sadly been lost to time, along with approximately 75% of other original silent-era films. Her film range was extremely diverse, ranging from the classic British horror Dead of Night (1945) to comedy The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954) and World War II drama The Camp on Blood Island (1958).
Merral's private life was almost as exciting as her life onstage - her three marriages and a vicious divorce battle attracted a great deal of public interest, and she was rumoured to have been involved with the famous music hall star Albert Whelan. She married fellow Liverpudlian Franklin Dyall in 1929, and remained with him until his death in 1950.
She died in Brighton in 1973, aged 83.
Frank Pettingell
Frank Pettingell, born 1891, appeared in no less than 66 films, TV movies and shows between 1931 and 1964. He played detective B.G. Rough in the original 1940 version of Gaslight (a psychological thriller from which the term 'to gaslight' receives its modern useage), and Kipps in the 1941 adaptation of H.G. Wells's 1905 novel of the same name. In later years he appeared in Coronation Street as James Nugent, the father of Emily Bishop, the soap's longest-standing female character.
Pettingell's passion for acting ran beyond the stage and screen, as he was an avid collector of popular playscripts and other literature. Following his death in 1966, the Bodleian Library in Oxford purchased his collection of 800 volumes of 19th century ‘penny-dreadful’ publications. The majority of his collection - some 4,400 plays - were given to the University of Kent by his wife Ethel in 1967.
Doris Lloyd
Doris Llorn, born 1891, appeared in more than 150 films throughout her 42-year career, but is probably best known today as Baroness Ebberfeld, Captain von Trapp's posh neighbour in The Sound of Music (1965).
Lloyd made her stage debut with the Liverpool Repertory Company when she was 23, and went onto appear in several West End shows before breaking into the film industry in the 1920 British silent film, The Shadow Between.
After moving to the United States, she became a Broadway star in the Ziegfeld Follies, a series of elaborate theatrical revue productions, between 1916 and 1925. She made her first American film appearance in 1925, and continued to appear in small but significant roles until her retirement in 1967. She died in 1968 , aged 76.
Kenneth Kent
Kenneth Kent, born 1892, appeared in nine films and two TV shows between 1938 and 1955, including the British detective drama At the Villa Rose (1940), in which he played Inspector Gabriel Hanaud, the friendly French detective depicted in a series of novels by A. E. W. Mason. But he is most notable for his role as the emperor Napoleon Bonaparte in the 1948 film Idol of Paris.
He died in London in 1973, aged 71.
Richard Bird
Born George Bird in 1895, Bird took the stage name Richard after being nicknamed "Dickie" by his friends at the Liverpool Repertory Company. He took to the stage in 1917, and appeared in a few short silent films. In 1934 he bagged leading roles in two British crime films The Warren Case and What Happened Then?, produced as a result of the Cinematograph Films Act 1927, which hoped to revive Britain's dying film industry.
In his youth, Bird was often cast as a villain, but later turned to more comedic roles such as the sleepy Inspector Sneed in The Door with Seven Locks (1940); the dual role of bumbling Arthur and the Ghost in Don't Take It to Heart (1944); and the dog-obsessed Jennings in Forbidden (1949).
He died in Northwood, Middlesex, in 1979 aged 84.
Vivian Gibson
Vivian Gibson was an Austrian actress born in Liverpool in 1898. She enjoyed a lucrative silent film career, appearing in 57 British and German films between 1921 and 1932, capturing the hearts of audiences with her striking features. However, she was unable to make the transition to sound films, and after struggling for work, she decided to retire from acting and moved to Vienna. She died in 1981, aged 82.
Ronald Brittain
Regimental Sergeant Major Ronald Brittain, born in Aigburth in 1899, was rumoured to have the loudest voice in the British Army - a skill which caused him to become a famous face among troops, as he featured in several British military training films during WWII.
Brittain, the son of a gardener, worked in a local butcher's shop before enlisting in the King's Liverpool Regiment in 1917, during the First World War. Physically fit and imposing at 6ft 3ins - at a time when the average British man was just 5ft 6ins - he rose through the army ranks. After the war, he became an instructor at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, where he was nicknamed "The Voice" by cadets, and was credited as the creator of the well-known reprimand: "You 'orrible little man!"
When Brittain retired from army life in 1954, he continued to put his signature bellow to good use in films, plays, and radio and TV advertisements. His final role was that of a Sergeant Major in the original 1967 version of Casino Royale. He died in Chester in 1981, aged 81.
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