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==Film Career==
==Film Career==
Bailey was brought out of retirement in 1932 by [[Stuart F. Doyle]] to play Dad Rudd in a film version of ''[[On Our Selection (1932 film)|On Our Selection]]'', which he also co-wrote. He played the role in three more films, contributing to the script as well for each film. All four Rudd films were directed by [[Ken G. Hall]] who also directed an [[The Squatter's Daughter|adaptation of ''The Squatter's Daughter'']].<ref>[http://www.liveperformance.com.au/halloffame/bertbailey1.html Bert Bailey] at [[Live Performance of Australia Hall of Fame]]</ref> After ''[[Dad Rudd, MP]]'' (1940), Bailey retired for good.
Bailey was brought out of retirement in 1932 by [[Stuart F. Doyle]] to play Dad Rudd in a film version of ''[[On Our Selection (1932 film)|On Our Selection]]'', which he also co-wrote. He played the role in three more films, contributing to the script as well for each film. All four Rudd films were directed by [[Ken G. Hall]] who also directed an [[The Squatter's Daughter|adaptation of ''The Squatter's Daughter'']].<ref>[http://www.liveperformance.com.au/halloffame/bertbailey1.html Bert Bailey] at [[Live Performance of Australia Hall of Fame]]</ref> After ''[[Dad Rudd, MP]]'' (1940), Bailey retired for good, apart from a brief appearance in a propaganda short made for the war effort, ''[[South West Pacific (1943 film)|South West Pacific]]'' (1943).


==Personal Life==
==Personal Life==
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* ''[[Dad and Dave Come to Town]]'' - actor, co-writer
* ''[[Dad and Dave Come to Town]]'' - actor, co-writer
* ''[[Dad Rudd, MP]]'' (1940) - actor, co-writer
* ''[[Dad Rudd, MP]]'' (1940) - actor, co-writer
* ''[[South West Pacific (1943 film)|South West Pacific]]'' (1943) - actor


==Select Theatre Credits==
==Select Theatre Credits==

Revision as of 06:45, 12 February 2012

Albert Edward Bailey (11 June 1868 - 30 March 1953), better known as Bert Bailey, was a New Zealand-born writer, theatrical manager and actor best known for playing Dad Rudd on stage and screen.

Early Life

Bailey was born in Auckland, New Zealand, the second son of farmer Christopher Bailey and Harriette Adelaide. His parents divorced and Bailey's mother moved with him to Sydney when he was six months old.[1] She remarried in 1879 and went on to become a noted retailer, establishing the film McCathie's.[2]

Bailey was educated at Cleveland Street Public School and worked as a telegram boy and at a floor manager at Crystal Palace skating rink. At age fifteen he wentinto vaudeville as a vocalist at Canterbury Music Hall in George Street, Sydney.[3] In 1889 he joined the touring theatrical company of Edmund Duggan, playing a wide variety of roles throughout Australia. In 1900 he and Duggan joined the company of noted theatre producer William Anderson, who was Duggan's brother-in-law.

Playwriting Career

In 1907 Bailey and Duggan wrote a play together under the joint pseudonym of "Albert Edmunds", The Squatter's Daughter (1907). This was produced by Anderson to great success and was adapted into a film in 1910, which Bailey directed as well as appeared in. He and Duggan collaborated on a number of follow up plays (with both men also appearing in the productions as actors), including The Man from Outback (1909), On Our Selection (1912), an adaptation of the stories of Steele Rudd and The Native Born (1913). Of these the most popular was On Our Selection which became an Australian theatrical phenomenon, with over hundreds of productions through to the present day. Bailey would perform the role of Dad Rudd on and off for the rest of his career.

Theatre Entrepreneur

In 1912 Bailey ended his 12 year association with Anderson and went into partnership with his business manager, Julius Grant.[4]The two of them leased the Anderson Theatre in Melbourne and formed a highly successful association as theatre producers. Bailey also frequently toured with the 'Bert Bailey Dramatic Company'. He and Grant did suffer some commercial failures, such as a season of plays by William Shakespeare and a 1920 production of On Our Selection in London.

After touring in the Barry Conners play The Patsy for 23 weeks in 1929, Bailey retired from performing, believing that talking films were making theatre unprofitable.

Film Career

Bailey was brought out of retirement in 1932 by Stuart F. Doyle to play Dad Rudd in a film version of On Our Selection, which he also co-wrote. He played the role in three more films, contributing to the script as well for each film. All four Rudd films were directed by Ken G. Hall who also directed an adaptation of The Squatter's Daughter.[5] After Dad Rudd, MP (1940), Bailey retired for good, apart from a brief appearance in a propaganda short made for the war effort, South West Pacific (1943).

Personal Life

Bailey married fellow actor Ivy Gorrick in 1902 and they had one child, a daughter, Doreen. His wife died in 1932 and Bailey never remarried. His habits included lawn bowls, boating and travelling with his daughter. He died a wealthy man with an estate worth £32,527.[6]

Filmography

Select Theatre Credits

  • Criterion Comedy Burlesque Opera (1895) - actor in tour around New South Wales[7]
  • True Til Death (1896) - actor[8]
  • Harbour Lights (1896) - actor[9]
  • The Profligate (1896) - actor
  • The World Against Her (1898) - actor[10]
  • The Southern Cross (1898) - actor[11]
  • East Lynne (1899) - actor
  • The Ladder of Life - actor
  • The Squatter's Daughter, or, The Land of the Wattle (1907) - actor, co-writer
  • White Australia or, The Empty North (1909) - actor
  • The Man from Outback (1909) - co-writer, actor
  • The Bushwoman (1909)
  • The Winning Ticket (1910) - actor
  • My Mate (1911) - actor
  • On Our Selection (1912) - actor, co-writer, producer
  • The Native Born (1913) - co-writer, actor, producer
  • What Happened to Mary (1914) - actor, producer
  • The Ninety-Nine (1914) - producer
  • Duncan McClure and the Poor Parson (1916) - actor, producer, co-writer
  • Gran’dad Rudd (1918) - producer, co-writer
  • On Our Selection (1920) - London production - actor
  • Jefferson Wins Through the King (1921) - producer
  • The Sentimental Bloke (1922) - producer, actor (as Ginger Mick)
  • The Patsy (1929) - actor

References

  1. ^ "REAL-LIFE 'DAD' HAS SEEN PIONEER DAYS." Sunday Times (Perth) 28 Jul 1940: 3 accessed 30 Dec 2011
  2. ^ Harriette Adelaide MccCathie at Australian Dictionary of Biography
  3. ^ Frank Van Straten, 'Bert Bailey' at Live Performance Hall of Fame
  4. ^ "MR. BERT. BAILEY." The Sydney Morning Herald 17 Feb 1912: 13 accessed Web. 26 Nov 2011
  5. ^ Bert Bailey at Live Performance of Australia Hall of Fame
  6. ^ "BERT BAILEY LEFT £32,527." The Sydney Morning Herald 18 Aug 1953: 5 accessed 30 Dec 2011
  7. ^ "Criterion Comedy Burlesque Opera Company". Queanbeyan Age (NSW : 1867 - 1904). NSW: National Library of Australia. 13 July 1895. p. 2. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
  8. ^ "THEATRE ROYAL". Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 - 1954). Rockhampton, Qld.: National Library of Australia. 29 December 1896. p. 5. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
  9. ^ "THEATRE ROYAL". Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld. : 1878 - 1954). Rockhampton, Qld.: National Library of Australia. 28 December 1896. p. 5. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
  10. ^ "LYCEUM THEATRE". The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). NSW: National Library of Australia. 10 September 1898. p. 10. Retrieved 14 January 2012.
  11. ^ "THE LYCEUM.—"THE SOUTHERN CROSS."". The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954). NSW: National Library of Australia. 26 September 1898. p. 3. Retrieved 14 January 2012.

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