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The Stars
This page contains about the Hepworth Stock Company and the stars of Hepworth films.
The magnificent Internet Movie Database (IMDB) contains a very great deal of information about Hepworth and his films.
Cecil Hepworth was the first British film maker to form a "Stock Company" of actors and actresses with contracts, as Edwardian actor- managers like Henry Irvine and Martin Harvey had done.
Hepworth was also the first to publish souvenir postcards of his people, starting in February 1912. Samples of the studio publicity material are reproduced on this website. Contact us if you would like to offer some for display.
Hepworth names just six members of his Stock Company in his Autobiography, but by studying advertisements and collecting the postcards it has been possible to determine that there were around 22 different actors and actresses, who sometimes used one or more stage names. Hepworth refused to publicise his stars' private lives, so it is difficult to ascertain their real names. For example, Gladys Sylvani Smith was also known as "Mary Pickford" and "Alexie Smith" in the 1940s. Tracing the stage name to the real name will occupy us for a while!
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The Hepworth Stock Company |
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| Stage Name | aka | Real Name | Other Information |
IMDB |
| Alma Taylor | see detailed page on this site | IMDB | ||
| Chrissie White | see detailed page on this site | IMDB | ||
| Henry Edwards | see detailed page on this site | IMDB | ||
| Ruby Belasco | ||||
| Harry Buss | ||||
| Madge Campbell | ||||
| Ivy Close | Voted "the most beautiful woman in
England" in the Daily Mirror competition of 1908 |
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| Jamie Darling | One of the first Boy Stars | |||
| Marie de Solla | ||||
| Alice de Winton | ||||
| Eric Desmond | ||||
| Harry Gilbey | ||||
| Violet Hopson | ||||
| Jack Hulcup | ||||
| John MacAndres | ||||
| Flora Morris | ||||
| Cyril Morton | ||||
| Edward Hay Plumb | "Plummie" | Edward Hay Plumb (1883-1960) was an actor in films from 1910, and from 1912 to 1915 was one of Britain’s most prolific directors. He returned to activity as actor throughout the 1930s. | ||
| Claire Pridelle | ||||
| Jack Raymond | ||||
| Stewart Rome | see detailed page on this site | |||
| Harry Royston | ||||
| Gladys Sylvani | Mary Pickford Alexi Smith |
see detailed page on this site | IMDB | |
| Alec Worcester | ||||
If you have any information please contact us.
Other actors and actresses (who may or may not have been in the Stock Company) are below
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Other Hepworth Actors and Actresses |
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| Stage Name | aka | Real Name | Other Information |
IMDB |
| Reginald Sheffield | IMDB | |||
| Florence Turner | ||||
Hepworth is loosely credited with inventing the "star system" before Hollywood did it.
I am indebted to Fred Lake, long time resident of Walton On Thames and Hepworth scholar, for some of the information on this page.
