Aubrey Smith

Admiral Sir Aubrey Clare Hugh Smith KCVO KBE CB (22 September 1872 – 6 October 1957) was a Royal Navy officer who saw active service in the First World War and the Greco-Turkish War. In the mid 1920s he was Naval Representative to the League of Nations.

Early life and career

The son of Hugh Colin Smith (1836–1910), who later became Governor of the Bank of England, by his marriage to Constance Maria Josepha Adeane, and the grandson of John Abel Smith (1802–1871), a banker and member of parliament, the young Smith joined the Royal Navy in 1885 as a midshipman, at the age of thirteen. A younger son, his older brother was Vivian Smith, who the same year left Eton and went up to Cambridge, a path not followed by Aubrey.

In 1893 Smith was promoted Lieutenant. On 1 June 1899 he married Elizabeth Emma Beatrice Grosvenor, a daughter of Richard Grosvenor, 1st Baron Stalbridge, and a niece of Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster. From 1908 to 1911 he was Naval Attaché at Saint Petersburg. While there, in 1909 he was appointed a member of the Royal Victorian Order and in 1910 was promoted Captain.

C. Aubrey Smith

Sir Charles Aubrey Smith CBE (21 July 1863 – 20 December 1948), known to film-goers as C. Aubrey Smith, was an England Test cricketer who became a stage and film actor, acquiring a niche as the officer-and-gentleman type, as in the first sound version of The Prisoner of Zenda (1937). In Hollywood, he organised British actors into a cricket team, playing formal matches that much intrigued local spectators.

Early life

Smith was born in London, England to parents C. J. Smith, a medical doctor, and Sarah Ann (neé Clode). His sister, Beryl Faber (died 1912), was married to Cosmo Hamilton.

Smith was educated at Charterhouse School and St John's College, Cambridge. He settled in South Africa to prospect for gold in 1888–89. While there he developed pneumonia and was wrongly pronounced dead by doctors. He married Isabella Wood in 1896.

Cricket career

Dolores Costello

Dolores Costello (September 17, 1903 – March 1, 1979) was an American film actress who achieved her greatest success during the era of silent movies. She was nicknamed "The Goddess of the Silent Screen". She was stepmother of John Barrymore's daughter Diana, by his second wife Blanche Oelrichs, the mother of John Drew Barrymore and Dolores (Dee Dee) Barrymore, and the grandmother of John Barrymore III, Blyth Dolores Barrymore, Brahma Blyth (Jessica) Barrymore, and Drew Barrymore.

Early years

Dolores Costello was born in Pittsburgh, the daughter of actors Maurice Costello and Mae Costello (née Mae Altschuk). She was of Irish and German descent. She and her younger sister, Helene, made their first film appearances in the years 1909–1915 as child actresses for the Vitagraph Film Company. They played supporting roles in several films starring their father, who was a popular matinee idol at the time. Dolores Costello's earliest listed credit on the IMDb is in the role of a fairy in a 1909 adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Little Lord Fauntleroy

Little Lord Fauntleroy is the first children's novel written by English playwright and author Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was originally published as a serial in the St. Nicholas Magazine between November 1885 and October 1886, then as a book by Scribner's in 1886. The accompanying illustrations by Reginald Birch set fashion trends and Little Lord Fauntleroy also set a precedent in copyright law when in 1888 its author won a lawsuit against E. V. Seebohm over the rights to theatrical adaptations of the work.

Plot

In a shabby New York side street in the mid-1880s, young Cedric Errol lives with his mother (known only as Mrs. Errol or "Dearest") in genteel poverty after the death of his father, Captain Cedric Errol. One day, they are visited by an English lawyer named Havisham with a message from Cedric's grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, an unruly millionaire who despises America and was very disappointed when his youngest son married an American lady. With the deaths of his father's elder brothers, Cedric has now inherited the title Lord Fauntleroy and is the heir to the earldom and a vast estate. Cedric's grandfather wants him to live in England and be educated as an English aristocrat. He offers his son's widow a house and guaranteed income, but he refuses to have anything to do with her, even after she declines his money.

Freddie Bartholomew

Frederick Cecil Bartholomew (March 28, 1924 – January 23, 1992), known for his acting work as Freddie Bartholomew, was an English-American child actor. One of the most famous child actors of all time, he became very popular in 1930s Hollywood films. His most famous starring roles are in Captains Courageous (1937) and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936).

Bartholomew was born in London, and for the title role of MGM's David Copperfield (1935), he moved to the United States at the age of 10 in 1934, living there the rest of his life. He became an American citizen in 1943 following World War II military service.

Despite his great success and acclaim following David Copperfield, Bartholomew's childhood film stardom was marred by nearly constant legal battles and payouts which eventually took a huge toll on both his finances and his career. In adulthood, after World War II service, Bartholomew's film career dwindled rapidly, and he switched from performing to directing and producing in the medium of television.