Guy Bates Post

Guy Bates Post (September 22, 1875 – January 16, 1968) was an American character actor who appeared in at least twenty-one Broadway plays and twenty-five Hollywood films over a career that spanned more than fifty years. He was perhaps best remembered in the role of Omar Khayyám in the 1914 stage and 1922 film productions of Richard Walton Tully's Omar the Tentmaker and for his over fifteen hundred performances in John Hunter Booth's 1917 play The Masquerader.[1]

Guy Bates Post
Guy Bates Post
BornSeptember 22, 1875 (1875-09-22)
Seattle, Washington
DiedJanuary 16, 1968 (1968-01-17) (aged 92)
Los Angeles, California
OccupationAmerican actor

Early life

Guy Bates Post was born in Seattle, Washington, the first of two sons and a daughter (actress Madeline Post) raised by John J. Post and Mary Annette Ostrander. His father, a Canadian of English descent, was a partner in the Seattle lumber firm Stetson and Post.[2] His mother was born in Wisconsin into a family that had originally come west from New York. Post received his education at schools in Seattle and later San Francisco before dropping out of college to embark on a career in theatre.[1][3][4]

Stage
as Omar Khayyám, c. 1914
as Napoleon III, c. 1939

Post made his professional debut in November 1894 at Chicago's Schiller Theatre playing a minor role opposite Cora Urquhart Brown-Potter and Kyrle Bellew in Charlotte Corday.[5] By May 1898, Post was a member of Otis Skinner's Company and married to Sarah Truax, the troupe's leading lady.[6] His big break came early in 1900 when he was chosen to play David Brandon in Liebler and Company's Southern American tour of Israel Zangwill's, The Children of the Ghetto.[3][7]

Though the tour proved short lived, Post's performance in The Children of the Ghetto led to such rôles as Rawdon Crowley, in Langdon Miller's dramatization of the William Makepeace Thackeray novel Vanity Fair; Lieutenant Denton, in Augustus Thomas' Arizona; Robert Racket in the Madeleine Lucette Ryley play My Lady Dainty; and Abbe Tiberge, in Theodore Burt Sayre's dramatization of the Abbé Prévost short novel Manon Lescaut.[3]

as John Stoddard in The Bridge by Rupert Hughes c. 1909

Post remained active on Broadway until the mid-1930s achieving particular success as Captain Stuart in Soldiers of Fortune (1902) by Augustus Thomas,[8] Steve in The Virginian (1904) by Owen Wister and Kirke La Shelle, Dean in Bird of Paradise (1910) by Richard Walton Tully, Omar Khayyám in Omar the Tent Maker (1914) by Richard Walton Tully and the dual rôles, John Chilcote, M.P. and John Loder, in The Masquerader (1914) by John Hunter Booth.[9][10]

Film

Post had a 25-year career in cinema beginning in 1922 with silent film adaptations of Omar the Tentmaker and The Masquerader. He played the Grand Lama in the 1936 serial Ace Drummond and 'Papa' Bergelot in the 1937 serial The Mysterious Pilot. Post played Louis Napoleon in the 1937 film Maytime with John Barrymore, Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy. In 1939 he was once again cast as Louis Napoleon in the film The Mad Empress opposite Medea de Novara, Lionel Atwill and Conrad Nagel. In his last film, A Double Life (1947), Post plays an actor performing in a production of Shakespeare's Othello.[11]

Personal life

Post married actress Sarah Truax on April 18, 1897, at St. John's Episcopal Church, San Francisco. At the time the two were both engaged with Skinner's company performing at the city's Baldwin Theatre.[12] The couple divorced amicably some ten years later. In August 1907 he married Jane Peyton (born Jennie Van Norman), a fellow cast member with The Heir to the Hoorah tour.[13] This union ended with an annulment seven years later.[14] Post married Adele Ritchie on February 2, 1916, at a ceremony held in Toronto two days after the actress had secured a divorce from her previous husband.[15] Post and Ritchie separated in 1926 and divorced three years later. On October 26, 1936, in Las Vegas, Post married the British actress Lillian Kemble-Cooper.[16] This union lasted for over thirty years and only ended with his death in Los Angeles at the age of 92.[1][17]

Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
1922The MasqueraderJohn Chilcote M.P. / John Loder
1922Omar the TentmakerOmar the tentmaker
1923Gold MadnessJim Kendall
1931PrestigeMajor
1936Till We Meet AgainCaptain Bruce Minton
1936The Case Against Mrs. AmesJudge John Davis
1936Fatal LadyFeodor Glinka
1936Trouble for TwoAmbassador of IraniaUncredited
1936Ace DrummondThe Grand Lama
1936CamilleAuctioneerUncredited
1937Champagne WaltzLumvedder
1937MaytimeLouis Napoleon
1937Blazing BarriersReginald Burley
1937The Mysterious Pilot'Papa' BergelotSerial, [Chs.1-4,6-8,15]
1937Daughter of ShanghaiLloyd Burkett
1938Of Human HeartsHorse BuyerUncredited
1938Marie AntoinetteConvention PresidentUncredited
1939JuarezUncredited
1939The Mad EmpressLouis Napoleon III
1942CrossroadsPresident of the CourtUncredited
1945The Picture of Dorian GrayVictor - ButlerUncredited
1945The Hidden EyeGeorge (butler)(scenes deleted)
1946Easy to WedRoberts, Allebury's ButlerUncredited
1947A Double LifeActor in 'Othello'(final film role)

Resources
  1. Guy Bates Post, 92, an Actor Since '93. New York Times, January 18, 1968, p. 39
  2. John J. Post. The Lumber World, Volume 6, May 15, 1908, p.49 Retrieved April 3, 2014
  3. edited by Walter Browne, Frederick Arnold Austin, 1908. Who'Who on the Stage p. 345 Retrieved April 3, 2014
  4. World War One draft registration card
  5. adapted for the stage by Bellew – Bellew, Harold Kyrle Money (1850–1911) by Julie Mills – Australian Dictionary of Biography Retrieved March 29, 2014
  6. Stage Chow-Chow. Salt Lake Tribune, May 29, 1898, p. 14
  7. The Children of the Ghetto (advertisement). Atlanta Constitution, February 4, 1900, p. 7
  8. from a story by Richard Harding Davis
  9. from the novel by Katherine Thurston
  10. Guy Bates Post - Internet Broadway Database Retrieved April 2, 2014
  11. Guy Bates Post - Internet Movie Database Retrieved April 3, 2014
  12. Nothing Special. Morning Oregonian, (Portland, Oregon), April 18, 1897, p. 3
  13. Guy Post Weds Again. Syracuse Herald, October 23, 1907, p. 6
  14. Actress Seeks Freedom. New York Times, December 31, 1914, p. 5
  15. Monday-Mrs. Bell, Tuesday-Miss Ritchie, Wednesday-Mrs. Post. Boston Daily Globe, February 3, 1916
  16. Guy Bates Post Weds Actress. Berkeley Daily Gazette, October 27, 1936, p. 9
  17. Funeral Services Conducted for Guy Bates Post. Van Nuys Valley News And Green Sheet, January 19, 1968 p. 11
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