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Ernest Thesiger
From Outcyclopedia, the free and queer encyclopedia. Ernest Thesiger, (15 January, 1879 - 14 January, 1961), sometimes credited as Ernst Thesiger, was a British stage and film actor. He is best known for his performance as Dr. Septimus Pretorius in James Whale's The Bride of Frankenstein in 1935. The grandson of the Baron of Chelmsford, Thesiger was born Ernest Frederic Graham Thesiger in London. Thesiger attended Marlborough College with aspirations of becoming a painter, but quickly switched to drama, making his professional debut in a production of Colonel Smith in 1909. He enlisted in the military at the outbreak of the First World War, but was wounded on the field and sent home. Thesiger's film debut was in 1916 in The Real Thing at Last, a spoof presenting Macbeth as it might be done by an American company, in which he did a drag turn as one of the Witches. He did a few more small movies during the silent era, but worked mainly on the stage. In 1919 he appeared in a Christmas production of The Merry Wives of Windsor, during which he met and befriended James Whale. In 1925 Thesiger appeared in Noel Coward's On With the Dance, again in drag, and later played the Dauphin in Shaw's Saint Joan. After James Whale had moved to Hollywood and found success with Journey's End and Frankenstein, he was commissioned to direct the screen adaptation of J.B. Priestly's The Benighted, entitled The Old Dark House, starring Charles Laughton in his first American film together with Boris Karloff and Raymond Massey. Whale immediately cast Thesiger in the film as Horace Femme, launching his Hollywood career. The following year Thesiger appeared with Karloff in The Ghoul, a film about a man who seeks to achieve immortality with a sacred Egyptian jewel. The film was later lost but rediscovered in 1969. It was remade as the comedy What a Carve Up in 1961 and probably provided some of the basis for the Vincent Price movie Dr. Phibes Rises Again in 1974 and also The Mummy Returns in 2001. When James Whale agreed to direct The Bride of Frankenstein in 1935, he insisted on casting Thesiger as Dr. Pretorius instead of the studio's choice of Claude Rains. Partly inspired by Mary Shelley's friend Dr. Polidori and largely based on Renaissance alchemist Paracelsus, it became Thesiger's most famous role. Thanks to Thesiger's fey, flamboyant performance, Dr. Pretorius became one of the most memorable characters in classic cinematic horror. Originally cast to play the luddite Theotocopolous in Things to Come (1936), Thesiger was replaced by the "more marketable" Cedric Hardwicke, but went on to appear that same year in another film adaptation of an H.G. Wells work, The Man Who Could Work Miracles. Around this same time Thesiger published a book, Adventures in Embroidery, about one of his favorite hobbies, needlework. The remainder of Thesiger's career was centered around the theater and supporting roles in films produced in Britain. His last film appearance was a small role in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, with Vivian Leigh and Warren Beatty, in 1961. That same year he made his last stage appearance in The Last Joke, with John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson. He died shortly after from natural causes. Select Filmography, per IMDB entry: External links: The Importance of Being Ernest Internet Movie Database - Ernest Thesiger Classic Horror Movie Players T Entry revised 1 February, 2005. All text is available for use under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (see Copyrights for details). DISCLAIMER: This is not an adult site, and does not contain any pornographic images or material. Any references to sex or other adult material or behavior is made from a purely academic standpoint. Images used on this site are credited whenever possible, and any whose copyright status is in dispute will be gladly removed or credited upon request. Not all persons listed on this site are or were openly homosexual, but reasonable conclusions about their sexuality may and has been made from diaries, letters, and other writings and accounts made by them and/or those who knew them. Several others are heterosexual and are included here for the impact, whether positive or negative, they have made on queer culture and history. |
