Aubrey Mallalieu

Aubrey Mallalieu (8 June 1873 – 28 May 1948) was an English actor with a prolific career in supporting roles in films in the 1930s and 1940s. Mallalieu began life as George William Mallalieu, the son of William Mallalieu (c. 1845–1927), a well-known stage comedian, and his wife Margaret Ellen Smith. He had a sister called Polly who corresponded with Lewis Carroll in the 1890s. He adopted the stage name of Aubrey early in his acting career. Information is scant on Mallalieu's pre-film career, but he is believed to have had a lengthy stage career before making the move into films. Archive sources available in New Zealand indicate that he spent a considerable number of years touring with stage companies in that country and Australia in the 1900s and 1910s. In December 1912 Mallalieu was touring Australia with Leal Douglas in a piece called “Feed the Brute”. The two formed a company and took it on a tour of South Africa, and then in May 1913 they travelled together to England on the SS Ballarat, when The Era reported that Mallalieu was returning after an absence of five years. Mallalieu may also have played supporting roles during the silent film era in Britain, but no named credits have been located as it was rare for supporting players to be name-checked at this period. Mallalieu's first named film credit dates from 1934, and thereafter he accumulated 115 screen appearances before his death in 1948. These were overwhelmingly minor roles, many in quota quickies and B films, although Mallalieu also played in a considerable number of prestigious and well-known productions such as The Stars Look Down (1940), The Young Mr. Pitt (1942), For You Alone (1945), The Wicked Lady (1945), Frieda (1947) and The Winslow Boy (1948).