Gareth Hughes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gareth Hughes (William John Hughes) (23 August 1894 – 1 October 1965) was a stage and silent screen actor. Usually cast as a callow, sensitive hero in Hollywood silent films, Hughes got his start on stage during childhood and continued to play youthful leads on Broadway.
Hughes was born in Llanelli, Wales.
[edit] Film career
His earlier screen work was with Clara Kimball Young in Eyes of Youth, Marguerite Clark in Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch. He was teamed with Viola Dana in The Chorus Girl’s Romance, and was with Famous Players-Lasky Corporation, in Sentimental Tommy, the picture which attracted immediate attention to his ability. Even though he had already appeared in many films before this,he always regarded Sentimental Tommy as his favourite and most successful. In total he made forty five films spanning 1918 to 1931.He was also the Welsh dialect coach, on The Corn Is Green made in 1945 starring Bette Davis (another Welsh connection). Ceil.B.DeMille called him “a young idealist”. Fulton Ousler describes him as” the charm boy to end all charm boys”
[edit] Later years
In 1929 like many others he lost his fortune in the Wall Street crash and was left penny less, but he carried on making films until 1931 when he appeared in Scarce Heads. He then decided to leave the world of film and return to theatre, which he had always been his first love. His last performance ran for 18 weeks at the Hollywood Playhouse in 1938, where he starred as Shylock in the Merchant of Venice. In the early 1940’s he decided it was time to leave this life style behind, having led a full and exciting but also lavish and selfish life.He now wanted to change and instead give something back to others. Adopting the name of Brother David he became a missionary to the Paiute Indians on the Pyramid Lake Reservation of Nevada. He spent almost 14 years(1944 to 1958) with his “children”, as he liked to call them and is still loved and remembered by them to this day. In 1958 he decided to return to Llanelli to spend his last years here.But he longed for the sunshine of California and after 5 months he returned to the states.
Later Hughes moved into the Motion Picture Country Home, in Woodland Hills. There he had his own cottage. He baptised silent film actress Clara Kimball Young prior to her death. There he died at the age of seventy, and his cremains were buried in a Masonic Cemetery at Reno.
[edit] External links
- Brother David A site set up by a relative of Gareth Hughes
- Gareth Hughes Site run by official biographer Stephen Lyons
