George Edwards (actor)

{{short description|Australian actor and producer}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{infobox person | name = George Edwards | birth_name = Harold Parks | birth_place = Kent Town, South Australia | birth_date = 11 March 1886 | death_place = | death_date = 28 August 1953 (aged 67) | occupation = {{hlist|Actor|comedian|vaudevilllian|producer}} | spouse = {{plainlist| *Margaret Rose Wilson (married 1907–?) *Molly D Hughes (married 1925–1933) *Nell Stirling (married 1934–1948) *Coral Lansbury (married 1953)}} }}

'''George Edwards''' (born '''Harold Parks''', 11 March 1886 in Kent Town, South Australia; died 28 August 1953) was an Australian actor, comedian, vaudevillian and producer, known as '''The Man of a Thousand Voices'''.<ref name="ADB" />

==Biography== Edwards was a pioneer of the radio serial in Australia. Prior to that he was a comedian, vaudeville artist, acrobatic dancer and stage performer. It is claimed that he changed his name from Harold Parks to George Edwards at the behest of Edward Branscombe, who was putting together an up-market act and did not want anyone associated with low-brow music hall, and that he took the name from English theatrical impresario George Edwards.<ref name=george>[http://www.australianotr.com.au/George1.htm Australian Old Time Radio entry] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081002034808/http://www.australianotr.com.au/George1.htm |date=2008-10-02}}</ref> He performed in a radio drama adaption of Robert Louis Stevenson's ''Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde''.

Edwards' first wife was Margaret Rose Wilson, whom he married on 6 August 1907. They had a daughter.<ref name="ADB">{{Cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |first=Coral |last=Lansbury |title=George Edwards (1886–1953) |id2=edwards-george-6093 |year=1981 |volume=8 |access-date=25 August 2025}}</ref>

On 9 May 1925, he married Molly D Hughes in Sydney,<ref>NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages registration number 7109/1929</ref> and in 1929 was a featured entertainer on the Sydney Show Boat. They divorced in 1933.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article16947162 |title=IN DIVORCE. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |location=New South Wales, Australia |date=21 January 1933 |access-date=6 May 2020 |page=10 |via=Trove}}</ref>

His third wife was Helen Dorothy Malmgrom (born 22 August 1909), who had worked with him on the Sydney Showboat. She changed her name to Nell Stirling. They were married in Haberfield on 29 March 1934.<ref>NSW registry of Births Deaths and Marriages registration number 5887/1934</ref> Together they appeared in many live radio productions, including the long-running ''Dad and Dave from Snake Gully'' series in which Edwards played Dad (and many other roles), and Stirling played Mabel (Dave's wife). Sumner Locke Elliott wrote a number of radio plays for Edward's company.<ref>{{cite web|website=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|title=Ten Stories About Australian Screenwriters You Might Not Know|date=September 29, 2019|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/ten-stories-australian-screenwriters-might-not-know/}}</ref>

Nell had a daughter from her first marriage, and one with Edwards, born in April 1941.

Edwards and Stirling were divorced in July 1948, and on 9 November she married her accountant, Alexander George Atwill. Nell died of an accidental overdose of carbitral capsules on 10 November 1951 at her Vaucluse home.<ref>{{Cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |first=Martha |last=Rutledge |title=Helen Dorothy (Nell) Stirling (1909–1951) |id2=stirling-helen-dorothy-nell-11772 |year=2002 |volume=16 |access-date=25 August 2025}}</ref>

Edwards married once more. His fourth wife was Coral Lansbury, a noted feminist who had worked as a radio scriptwriter and actor. She was a distant cousin of English-American actress Angela Lansbury, producer Edgar Lansbury and Bruce Lansbury. The couple married on 20 February 1953 at the Registrar-General's office in Sydney<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article23229238|title=Fourth marriage sets 'Dad' off on 'new life'|date=1953-02-21|work=Argus (Melbourne, Vic.: 1848 – 1957)|access-date=2019-04-17|pages=3}}</ref><ref>NSW registry of Births Deaths and Marriages registration number 673/1953</ref> but Edwards died six months later on 28 August at the Scottish Hospital in Paddington.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article27523615|title=Death Of Radio Producer|date=1953-08-29|work=The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW: 1842 – 1954)|access-date=2019-04-17|pages=4}}</ref><ref>NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages registration number 18548/1953</ref> Lansbury soon afterwards married Bruce Bligh Turnbull,<ref>NSW Registry of Births Deaths and Marriages registration number 21952/1955</ref> and in October 1954 gave birth to their son Malcolm Turnbull, who went on to become the 29th Prime Minister of Australia. She later become a notable English literature academic.

==Select credits==

===As actor=== *''Satan in Sydney'' (1918) – feature film *''The Dingo'' (1923) – feature film<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article36650169 |title=AMUSEMENTS,. |newspaper=The Advertiser |location=Adelaide |date=11 February 1924 |accessdate=29 July 2012 |page=6 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> *''Townies and Hayseeds'' (1923) – feature film *''The Haunted Barn'' (1931) – short film

===As producer=== *''It's Never Too Late to Mend'' (1936) *''Crazy Family'' (1939) – also actor *''Tradesman's Entrance'' (1941) – serial *''Grand City'' (1942) – serial *''Black Ivory'' (1945) - serial *''The Search for the Golden Boomerang'' – serial *''Black Lightning'' – radio serial *''The Harp in the South'' – radio serial

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *[http://ozvta.com/practitioners-e/ George Edwards] at Australian Variety Theatre Archive *[https://web.archive.org/web/20081002034808/http://www.australianotr.com.au/George1.htm George Edwards] at Australian Old Time Radio site

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, George}} Category:1886 births Category:1953 deaths Category:Australian male film actors Category:Male actors from Adelaide Category:20th-century Australian male actors