TRAGIC STORY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23281, 25 February 1939, Page 2 (Supplement)

TRAGIC STORY

LONDON FILM STAR SACRIFICE FOR WIFE FROM RICHES TO POVERTY rPHE London-born film star and" film director, Jameson Thomas, who once sacrificed £IO.OOO a year in a>vain attempt to save the life of his ailing wife, died in poverty at Pasadena, California. He was aged 45. Once wealthy, Thomas had been living on an allowance from the motion picture relief fund, to which he had made generous contribution in his prosperous days. He suffered from tuberculosis, from which his wife, Miss Evelyn Dudson, died in 1931. Her efforts for him secured him a three-year contract with British International Pictures which would have yielded £IO,OOO a year. Numerous Successes But she contracted tuberculosis and spent much of her tune in sanatoria. In 1930 Thomas sacrificed everything and took his wife to California, hoping that the climate would cure her. After numerous successes in American pictures Thomas directed such noted players as Anna May Wong, Gilda Grey, Alice Joyce and Maria Corda. He had also played recently in "Mr. Deeds Comes to Town." "100 Men and a Girl," "It Happened One Night," and "Lives of a Bengal Lancer." Jameson Thomas' British films included "The Hate Ship," "Piccadilly," end "High Treason." American films included "Night Life in Reno," "Body and Soul," and "The Phantom President. "