Basil Gill

Basil Gill was a British actor who worked on stage and screen. Born in Birkenhead in 1877, he debuted on stage in Bury, Lancashire in 1897 in Wilson Barrett's popular play The Sign of the Cross. He later played it in London and toured Australia and the United States in productions of The Sign of the Cross and Ben-Hur. In 1903 he became part of Herbert Beerbohm Tree's London company, performing major Shakespearean roles until 1907. He kept performing in Shakespeare into the 1930s and was also seen as a matinee idol in romantic modern plays. His film work began with Henry VIII (1911), opposite Beerbohm Tree. In 1926 he appeared in two De Forest Phonofilm shorts, as Santa Claus and as Brutus in Julius Caesar. His final film was The Citadel (1938).