St. Clair Bayfield

St. Clair Bayfield
Born	John St. Clair Roberts August 2, 1875 Cheltenham, England
Died	May 19, 1967(1967-05-19) (aged 91)
Occupation	Stage actor

St. Clair Bayfield, American stage actor, was born John St. Clair Robarts ^[1] on August 2, 1875 in Cheltenham, England, and died May 19, 1967.^[2] He was born to a country parson named Robarts and his fox-hunting wife, one of the three illegitimate daughters of the Earl of Ellenborough, a prominent politician in his day and Governor-General of India in the years preceding the Mutiny. St. Clair's great-grandfather was Lord Chief Justice of England. His portrait shows a likeness to St. Clair. Little is known of St. Clair's early life in England, but as a young man he sailed to New Zealand (many years later, at his 90th birthday party, he sang some of the sea shanties remembered from that voyage). While there, he tried farming and also joined a volunteer regiment called the Waikiki Rifles, sleeping every night with a gun under his pillow. Having a fine voice and physical presence, he became involved in amateur theatricals, leading eventually to his joining a professional company touring to Australia (his diary of time spent in the unsanitary city of Melbourne is among the "Bayfield Archive" preserved at Lincoln Center, New York). He next found himself acting with a company headed by the impresario, William Ben Greet, who abandoned his cast to penury in a remote corner of the United States. That led to the establishment of Actor's Equity of which St. Clair was a founding member. His subsequent stage career involved regular appearances on Broadway for several decades, usually in works by British playwrights. His prolonged affair with Florence Foster Jenkins, seven years his senior, is well known. After Jenkins' death, he married a piano teacher, Kathleen Weatherley. They lived in Larchmont, New York, where he died in 1967.

Career

Bayfield spent his youth in New Zealand on sheep and cattle farms. He also served as a sailor and soldier. Bayfield lived for many years (circa 1908-1944+) in an apartment on 37th Street in Manhattan, New York.^[3]

Bayfield joined the Ben Greet Players in a revival of Twelfth Night that took the troupe to 56 Pennsylvania towns in 65 days during the summer of 1914. Also in the group was Sydney Greenstreet.^[4]

Bayfield lived with and managed the career of singer Florence Foster Jenkins for over 36 years.^[3] Jenkins died in 1944.^[5]

Achievements

The Actors' Equity Association bestows the annual St. Clair Bayfield Award to an actor or actress in a non-featured role in a Shakespearean production.^[2] The award was established in 1973.^[6]

Theatre credits

Bayfield's credits in Broadway theatre include:^[7]

References

External links

• St. Clair Bayfield at the Internet Broadway Database
• St. Clair Bayfield papers, 1898-1986, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts