Arthur Maude

Arthur John Maude (23 July 1880 – 9 January 1950) was an English actor, screenwriter, and film director born in Pontefract, West Riding, Yorkshire, to William Robert Maud (1849–1919) and his wife Lucy Monkman (1853–1929). His Broadway career spanned from 1910 to 1923, with credits including Queen Victoria and Mr. and Mrs. Daventry. In later life Maude claimed to be a nephew of British general Sir Frederick Stanley Maude, the World War I figure associated with the Mesopotamia campaign, though British census records and vital documents do not support this claim.

Maude began his professional life as a stage actor, spending six years with John Martin Harvey's stage company before becoming manager and leading man of Constance Crawley's company in America. In that capacity he took the male lead in the 1910 Broadway production of Mr. and Mrs. Daventry. He and Crawley, who was separated from her husband, began living together, and Maude assumed management of her career. During World War I the two acted opposite each other in films they also co-wrote, among them six productions made with the American Film Manufacturing Company, known as Flying "A" Studios, based in Santa Barbara, California.

Following Crawley's death in 1919, Maude continued working as an actor, screenwriter, and director. His most prominent screen acting role came in the 1922 Harry Houdini film The Man from Beyond, in which he played Dr. Gilbert Trent. His final major directorial project in the United States was the 1927 silent film The Flag: A Story Inspired by the Tradition of Betsy Ross, a two-reel production of approximately twenty minutes that he both wrote and directed, produced in color using the Technicolor process.

Between 1927 and 1928 Maude returned to Britain after more than twenty-five years in the United States. He directed the 1929 drama The Clue of the New Pin, filmed using Phonofilm and generally regarded as the first feature-length talking picture released in Britain. Among his subsequent directorial credits were Toni (1928), The Ringer (1928), The Flying Squad (1929), The Lyons Mail (1931), and One Good Turn (1951), the latter of which he also produced. No evidence exists that Maude ever married or became involved with another woman after Crawley's death. He died of a heart attack on 9 January 1950 in Paddington, London, at the age of 69, more than a year before One Good Turn was released.