Roy Redgrave - Family and Career

Family and Career

His first wife was actress Ellen Maud Pratt, the daughter of prosperous Devon farmer, John Dew Pratt of Buckland Monachorum. Her stage name was Judith Kyrle. They were married in Littleham cum Exmouth, Devon on 1 September 1894. Their careers reached a high point at their joint debut at the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton in April 1900 with Roy billed as "The Dramatic Cock o' the North". They had three children, John Kyrle born in 1895, Robin Roy (father of Major-General Sir Roy Redgrave) born in 1897 and Nellie Maud born in 1898.

About this time Redgrave fell in love with a young actress named Esther Mary Cooke, (known on the stage as Ettie Carlisle), daughter of Victor Cooke, huntsman and riding master. Ellen discovered the affair and Ettie fled England for South Africa. Redgrave followed her to South Africa. They had a son, Victor Redgrave Parrett, born 25 July 1906 in Australia. Carlisle had married Clayton Parrett by special license between 28 October and 10 November 1903, on a Sunday at the cathedral in Cape Town. Redgrave arrived two days later on the Tuesday. Carlisle left Clayton Parrett and went to Australia with Redgrave.

At some point Redgrave left for Australia alone. In the "History of Australian Theatre" archives, the American actress Tittell Brune made her first appearance in Australia on 21 September 1904 at Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney in the play Sunday, supported by Roy Redgrave. Roy toured with her on the J. C. Williamson circuit. According to Corin Redgrave, Ellen (Judith) pursued Roy to Australia, arriving in time to pay his unsettled hotel bills. Ellen was unable to persuade him to return home with her to his family. Ellen remarried Frederick John Nettlefold, a respectable landed gentleman in 1907.

However Redgrave did return to England, appearing in repertory at the Grand Theatre, Brighton, where he met Daisy Bertha Mary Scudamore. They married at Glasgow Register Office in 1907 while touring in the north and had one child, the actor Sir Michael Redgrave born on 20 March 1908, later to become the father of actor/actresses Vanessa, Corin and Lynn.

Six months after Michael's birth, Redgrave left for Australia again, this time permanently. William Anderson, a Melbourne producer, had just built the King's Theatre, and needed actors. His name appears in June 1909, when he performed in the play The Bank of England. The following year, Anderson, known for his fondness of the lurid and sensational, had Roy collaborate with him on a play about the just ended Dr. Crippen case. Crippen was hanged in November 1910. The play was called By Wireless Telegraphy, but there is no record that a production came out of it. In 1911, Anderson was ruined financially by an expensive flop, and had to lease away his King's Theatre, and Redgrave turned his attention to the new and burgeoning film industry, under contract to Lincoln-Cass Films. Although the claimed he did not like motion picture acting he appeared in several silent films, beginning in 1911 with The Christian. Later he played the villain in Moondyne (1913) as well as six shorts, played the lead in The Hayseeds (1917), and co-starred in Robbery Under Arms (1920). Back in England, the forsaken Daisy had changed her name to Margaret and married Captain James Anderson, a wealthy tea planter.