{{short description|British actor}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}} {{Use British English|date=August 2016}} {{Infobox person | name = A. E. Anson | image = A. E. Anson, actor, oval portrait.jpg | caption= | spouse = {{plainlist| * Cora Busch, * Deirdre Doyle, * Mary Malleson }} | signature = | birth_date = {{birth date|1879|09|14|df=y}} | birth_place = London, England | death_date = {{death date and age|1936|06|25|1879|09|14|df=y}} | death_place = Monrovia, California, U.S.<ref name=imdb>{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0030653/ | title=A. E. Anson | publisher=Internet Movie Database | date=November 2013}}</ref> | occupation = Actor }}
'''Albert Edward Anson''' (14 September 1879 – 25 June 1936) was a British stage and screen actor. Born in London, he made his first appearance onstage in 1895. He left the stage briefly to pursue a degree in engineering and returned to appear with Beerbohm Tree's company in 1904. He became known for his performances in Shakespearian roles on stages in London and New York.
In 1931, Anson made his screen debut in John Ford's film ''Arrowsmith''. Director Frank Capra cast him as the "High Lama" in the film ''Lost Horizon'', but Anson died before filming began and the role was subsequently given to Sam Jaffe.
==Stage career== His father was the Shakespearean and character actor George W. Anson.<ref name=imdb/>
His stage debut was at the Court Theatre in London on 27 April 1895. In 1904, like his father before him, he joined Herbert Beerbohm Tree's company. In 1905 he played Brabantio in ''Othello'', his first major role.<ref name=imdb/><ref name=emory>{{cite web|url=http://shakespeare.emory.edu/actordisplay.cfm?actorid=3 |title=A. E. Anson |publisher=Shakespeare and the Players; Harry Rusche, Emory University |date=December 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224134310/http://shakespeare.emory.edu/actordisplay.cfm?actorid=3 |archivedate=24 December 2013 }}</ref>
In 1905 he toured the US,appearing in Clyde Fitch's play ''The Toast of the Town'' alongside Viola Allen and Hassard Short.<ref name=imdb/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/46294865/ | title=Reading Times, 7 November 1905 | publisher=Newspapers.com | date=December 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://cdm15082.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p252501coll1/id/7738/rec/10 | title=Three photographs of Clyde Fitch's play The Toast of the Town | publisher=Folger Shakespeare Library | date=December 2013}}</ref>
[[File:Julia Neilson and A. E. Anson.JPG|thumb|Julia Neilson and Anson in ''Henry of Navarre'']] He first appeared in New York in 1902, in Shakespeare's ''Julius Caesar''.
As a member of the ''New Theatre Company'', which included many English actors, Anson appeared in the first production staged at the New Theatre in New York. Opening on 6 November 1909, the production was Shakespeare's ''Antony and Cleopatra'', in which he played Octavian. Later that month he also appeared in John Galsworthy's ''Strife'', which opened on 17 November. The company produced Shakespeare's ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'', which opened on 7 November 1910, Anson playing Master Ford.<ref name=emory/><ref name=ibdb>{{cite web | url=http://ibdb.com/person.php?id=14046 | title=A. E. Anson | publisher=Internet Broadway Database | date=December 2013}}</ref> The production was staged in Toronto in December 1910, where a reviewer wrote, "Mr. Anson was especially fine as the jealous husband Ford. Indeed his was a performance that deepened the significance of the play."<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Toronto Theatres|author=Hector Charlesworth|authorlink=Hector Charlesworth|date=December 1910|url=http://elib.ripmfulltext.org/eLibrary/Permalinks/1184976|journal=Musical Canada|volume=5|issue=8|pages=227–228|url-access=subscription |via=RIPM}}</ref>
He was in ''The Witness for the Defence'' by A. E. W. Mason, which ran for 64 performances at the Empire Theatre, opening in December 1911.<ref name=ibdb/> This came to Toronto, where the same reviewer wrote, "Mr. A. E. Anson... is known to be one of the most eloquent actors of the day – a man much of the type of Sir George Alexander, the possessor of a beautiful voice and the bearing of a person of distinction as he is supposed to be in the play."<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Toronto Theatres|author=Hector Charlesworth|date=December 1911|url=http://elib.ripmfulltext.org/eLibrary/Permalinks/1185410|journal=Musical Canada|volume=6|issue=8|pages=236–237|url-access=subscription |via=RIPM}}</ref>
The play ''Romance'' by Edward Sheldon, in which Anson played Cornelius van Tuyl, ran for 160 performances in 1913 at the Maxine Elliott Theatre.<ref name=ibdb/> A critic wrote, "Mr. Anson's complete command of the resources of his art is a treat to all lovers of acting, and his suave ease upon the stage a thing to be copied by many a player."<ref>"What bishops do in their youth". Walter Prichard Eaton, [https://archive.org/stream/playsplayersleav00eato/playsplayersleav00eato#page/74/mode/1up ''Plays and Players: Leaves from a Critic's Scrapbook'' (1916), page 74.]</ref> In London, ''Romance'' opened at the Duke of York's Theatre on 6 October 1915; Anson, who produced the play, appeared again as van Tuyl. The play ran for 1,049 performances.<ref>[http://www.stagebeauty.net/th-frames.html?http&&&www.stagebeauty.net/th-longr.html Longest Running Plays in London and New York] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613222559/http://www.stagebeauty.net/th-frames.html?http&&&www.stagebeauty.net%2Fth-longr.html |date=13 June 2020 }} stagebeauty.net, accessed January 4, 2017.</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=y7OCKIf0LH4C&pg=PA254 Page 254] ''The A to Z of American Theater: Modernism''. James Fisher, Felicia Hardison Londré. Rowman & Littlefield, 2009.</ref><ref>[https://www.kent.ac.uk/library/specialcollections/theatre/r.php/30024/show.html Theatre collections] University of Kent, accessed January 5, 2017.</ref>
[[File:Hirschfeld daytime jeh.JPG|thumb|left|The Martin Beck Theatre, on W 45th St, New York (now the Al Hirschfeld Theatre), where Anson staged and appeared in the play ''Cape Smoke'' by Walter Archer Frost in 1925; it ran for 104 performances<ref name=ibdb/>]] Back in New York, he reprised the role of van Tuyl in the 1921 revival of ''Romance'' at the Playhouse Theatre, where it ran for 106 performances.<ref name=ibdb/>
He was in the play ''White Cargo'', which ran for 257 performances at the Greenwich Village Theatre, opening in November 1923, Anson playing Witzel. The play was written and staged by Leon Gordon. (It was made into a film in 1942.)<ref name=ibdb/>
He married three times: to actress Cora Busch in 1902 (their daughter Cora Marjorie Viola Anson was born in 1906) and they divorced in 1912; to actress Deirdre Doyle in 1912, they were later divorced; thirdly to actress Mary Malleson, with whom he appeared in New York in ''The Barton Mystery'' by Walter Hackett in 1917; he also directed this play. During the 1920s he was engaged to, but did not marry, the actress Marjorie Rambeau with whom he was in two New York productions: ''As You Like It'' in 1923, and ''The Road Together'' (which closed after one performance) by George Middleton in 1924.<ref name=imdb/><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/27064462/ | title=The Ogden Standard-Examiner, 21 March 1926 | publisher=Newspapers.com | date=December 2013}}</ref>
==Movies== thumb|upright|Anson in ''Arrowsmith'' In the 1930s he moved to California. He appeared in the 1931 film ''Arrowsmith'', directed by John Ford. The film was based on the novel “Arrowsmith” by Sinclair Lewis, about the life of Martin Arrowsmith, an idealistic doctor (played by Ronald Colman); Anson played the part of his mentor Dr Gottlieb. Anson had a minor part in the 1931 William Powell romantic drama ''The Road to Singapore'', directed by Alfred E. Green and based on the play ''Heatwave'' by Denise Robins and Roland Pertwee.<ref name=imdb/><ref>{{cite web | url=http://pre-code.com/arrowsmith-1931-review/ | title=Arrowsmith (1931) Review | publisher=Pre-Code.Com; reviewing every film, 1930 to 1934 | date=December 2013}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{commons category}} *{{IBDB name}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Anson, Albert Edward}} Category:1879 births Category:1936 deaths Category:English male film actors Category:English male stage actors Category:English vaudeville performers Category:Burials at Hollywood Forever Cemetery Category:20th-century English male actors Category:British expatriate male actors in the United States Category:Male actors from London