{{Short description|Australian actor}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2020}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} {{infobox person | image = lou-vernon.jpg | caption = Photograph by Lafayette, circa 1940 | name = Lou Vernon | birth_name = Clarence Alphone Lambert | birth_place= Fortitude Valley, Queensland, Australia | birth_date = 26 June 1888 | death_place= Sydney, Australia | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1971|12|22|1888|6|26}} | occupation = Actor, producer | children = Ross Vernon | spouse = {{plainlist| *{{marriage|Olive Stella Josephine Lockyer Sinclair |1917|1937|end=divorced}} *{{marriage|Asthore Sarah Katherine Taunton|1937|1965|end=died}}}} }} '''Lou Vernon''' (born '''Clarence Alphonse Lambert<ref name="ozvta"/>''', 26 June 1888 – 22 December 1971) was an Australian singer, vaudevillian, actor of stage, radio and screen and producer. He started his career in musical comedy, and was particularly noted for his versatility and ability as a character actor.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article32380091 |title=AUSTRALIAN TALKIES. |newspaper=The West Australian |location=Perth |date=8 January 1932 |accessdate=8 August 2012 |page=3 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47488152 |title=Versatile Lou Vernon. |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly | date=11 April 1942 |accessdate=8 August 2012 |page=24 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
Roy Rene in his memoir mentioned Lou worked with him in the comedy farce, "Give and Take". It was described in The Bulletin, "There has not been so much laughter in any one spot in Melbourne for months and months".<ref> {{cite news | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-633447672 | title=Sundry Shows | newspaper=The Bulletin | date=22 October 1925 | page=34 | via=Trove }}</ref>
== Early life == Vernon was born as Clarence Alphonse Lambert in Fortitude Valley, Queensland, the seventh of eight children to Frenchman Louis Lambert and Eliza Colton of Newport, Wales.
By 1917 we find Vernon in Sydney making substantial inroads into Sydney's theatre scene. He also found love in Olive Stella Josephine Lockyer Norris, (née Sinclair). The two were married at Waverley in 1917. Olive had a child, not to her then husband, but to Lou Vernon. Olive was four years older than her husband. Their child, Ross Vernon would later show ambitions into theatre. However that was not to be. As Flt. Lieutenant Walter Ross Vernon, leading a second bombing sortie over Mawaraka, Bougainville, Ross crashed his RAAF bomber during World War II and was killed 11 January 1945.<ref name="ozvta">{{cite web |url=https://ozvta.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/vernon-lou-hokanson.pdf |title=Lou Vernon - A man of many talents...}}</ref>
==Career==
Vernon by the mid-1920s was engaged by the J.C. Williamson Company and landed the plum role of Emile La Flamme in Rudolph Friml's romantic musical Rose-Marie. Also in the cast was Fifi Banvard, at the time separated from her husband and fellow member of Thespian Masonic Lodge in Brisbane, Edward de Tisne. The several times extended season of Rose-Marie provided the venue for a long tempestuous love affair between Fifi and Lou Vernon. Rose Marie ran non-stop until 1928. A tolerant Mrs. Olive Vernon, meanwhile kept her own counsel only instigating divorce proceedings against Vernon a decade later in 1937
1937 was a busy year for Vernon. His marriage to Olive had somehow survived twenty turbulent years. However, by 1937 it ended in divorce. Vernon was now free to marry long-time friend Asthore Sarah Katherine Taunton (1907–1965). Asthore Sarah Taunton (Tory) was a dance teacher and choreographer whom Vernon met through theatre. They remained married until Tory's death in 1965.
===Death=== Vernon's last three years were spent in retirement in his Vaucluse home. Most of his contemporaries in acting and entertainment had either retired or passed on when Vernon 'got his call' dying just before Christmas, 1971. He was cremated at Northern Suburbs Crematorium, Sydney, on Christmas Eve, 1971.
Indeed, in his obituary headline in 1971 the Canberra Times writes "Dr. Mac" dead at 83, as a tribute to his role as Dr. Robert McIntyre in the long running radio program "Dr. Mac".
==Filmography== {| class="wikitable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Role ! Notes |- |1931|| ''The Exile'' || District Attorney || |- |1932|| ''His Royal Highness'' || Torano<ref name="his">{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-australian-films-his-royal-highness/|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|title=Forgotten Australian Films: His Royal Highness|date=10 November 2025|access-date=10 November 2025}}</ref> || |- |1939|| ''Come Up Smiling'' || Signor Rudolpho ||<ref name="come">{{cite magazine|date=15 August 2025|access-date=15 August 2025|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-australian-films-come-up-smiling-ants-in-his-pants/|magazine=Filmink|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|title=Forgotten Australian Films: Come Up Smiling / Ants in His Pants}}</ref> |- |1939|| ''Gone to the Dogs'' || Doctor Sundermann<ref name="dogs">{{cite magazine|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|magazine=Filimink|date=19 July 2025|access-date=19 July 2025|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-australian-films-gone-to-the-dogs/|title=Forgotten Australian Films: Gone to the Dogs}}</ref> || |- |1941|| ''The Power and the Glory'' || Professor Marnelle<ref name="power">{{cite magazine|magazine=Filmink|date=6 October 2025|access-date=6 October 2025|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/forgotten-australian-films-the-power-and-the-glory/|first=Stephen|last=Vagg|title=Forgotten Australian Films: The Power and the Glory}}</ref> || |- |1941|| ''That Certain Something'' || Robert Gimble || |- |1948|| ''The Betrayal'' || Ned Washington || |- |1957|| ''The Shiralee'' || Goon || |- |1959|| ''On the Beach'' || Bill Davidson || |- |1959|| ''Captain James Cook'' || Aboriginal Legend || |- |1969|| ''Tilley Landed On Our Shore'' || || |- |1969|| ''You Can't See 'round Corners'' || Nugget || |}
==References== {{reflist}}
==Sources== *''Mo's Memoirs.'' (ghostwritten by Elizabeth Lambert and Max Harris) Melb: Reed and Harris, 1945. *[https://collections.artscentremelbourne.com.au/#details=ecatalogue.200822 Photograph from the Performing Arts Collection] * [https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/110697081 "Dr. Mac" of radio dies at 83]
==External links== *[https://ozvta.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/vernon-lou-hokanson.pdf Lou Vernon - A man of many talents...]. *{{IMDb name|0894693}} at IMDb
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Vernon, Lou}} Category:Male actors from Brisbane Category:20th-century Australian male actors Category:1888 births Category:1971 deaths Category:Australian male stage actors Category:Australian male radio actors Category:Australian people of French descent