HIS LAST "CUE."

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 18, 26 February 1914, Page 5

HIS LAST "CUE."

ACTOR DIES AT HIS DESK. Mr Mark Melford, well known as actor, author, and playwright, died , recently at his residence at 69, Sedgeforth Road, Shepherd's Bush. A few weeks before his death he took his farewell of the stage in circumstances which left a deep impression on the gathering of old who surrounded him at his last turn. . The veteran died with his pen m his hand. During the closing months -of his lite (writes the- "Express") Mr Melford had been engaged writing a novel entitled "The Two Pilgrims." Over 35,000 words of the manuscript were ready for the printers, and he was working on his book until late overnight. As he was taking up his pen ; again in the morning he expired. BOOK TO BE COMPLETED BY DAUGHTER.. ./ The novel will be completed by his daughter, who is familiar with the plot. Mr Melford had a premonition that he would not live to filiish the book. Only a few days before he was discussing with his friend, Mr Bransby Williams, the famous entertainer, the fate of Dickens in dying before concluding "Edwin Drood." .; , Mr Melford had been in very bad "Health for some time, but the anxieties of his last days were -softened by the tender solicitude of his daughter, Miss Jackeydawra Melford, whor nursed him with untiring devotion, and by the practical kindness of\Mr Bransby Williams, who recently raised a fund which placed the veteran beyond the fear of financial stress. This fund was a sequel to the, farewell performance at the Little Theatre at the end of last November, which was iiot a financial success. That performance gave the audience a glimpse of the unsuspected pathos .'a life behind the scenes —a glimpse whieh will haunt them for many a day. A WONDERFUL TRIUMPH OF WILL. . It was only by great triumph of •Will-power over physical weakness that Mr Melford was able to appear at all on that occasion. He looked painfully ill as he sat propped up in a large chair on the stage, and, in counsel's wig and gown, played for tho last time his old part of Mr feturgeon, K.C., in his own delightful little farce, "Non-suited." There were tears in the eyes of _ old "pals" of the boards and footlights who sat in the stalls —unashamed tears. Mr Mark Melford—a brother of Austin Melford—had an active career of about 45 years, during which he wrote various plays and books, and appeared both on the legitimate stage and on the ifeills, acting with the late Mr E. S. Willard and many other famous folic. His first great success in play-writing was the: farce "Turned Up," in which Mr Willie Edouhr made his name. He was also the author of "A Screw; Loose," produced at the Vaudeville,' "The Jerry-Builder," and "Flying' from Justice." iOn leaving the stage he' wrote 1 ' Life in; a Booth,'' a delightful sketch of the lot of the old "barnstorming '' playjers. I < * GAGGING TILL DOOMSDAY.'' It was 40 years ago when, finding himself on the rocks in a Yorkshire town, he sought out a strolling troup in the neighbourhood. He found them amid the living vans, with the stock heroine, a girl, peeling potatoes on the top steps of the first van. Having assured the heroine's mother, the proprietress, a stout little lady of 50, that he could "gag till Doomsday," he was engaged at the stipend of 15s a week to "go on as 'Oratio in 'Hamlet'— singing two songs in between and playing Nipper in the farce." Shakespeare's text did not get very reverent treatment as a result of the "gagging" indulged in. The, First Gravedigger, we are told, used and handled a turnip as Yorick's skull, and invariably introduced the name of a local hostelry from which the "stoop of liquor" was to be fetched—being, of course, paid in kind later on. This is how the "unruly night" speech was treated by one of the actors in a performance of "Macbeth"— "It 'as been a dreadful night," he started. "Strange sounds were heard, chimney pots were blown down, trees uprooted, and—and—well," he added with a confidential "air of indifference; "you —you know the' sort of night it was." A mysterious disappearance and a gun-shot accident, from which he made a wonderful recovery, were among the incidents in "Mark's" varied career.