Erskine Sanford

Erskine Sanford (November 19, 1885 – July 7, 1969) was an American actor whose career spanned the stage, radio, and motion pictures. Born in Trinidad, Colorado, he received his education at the Horace Mann School in New York City. His professional acting debut came with Minnie Maddern Fiske's company, in a production of Leah Kleschna. Early stage work included appearances in The Blue Bird and The Piper during the 1910–11 season at the New Theatre in New York City, as well as Shakespearean repertory performances with Ben Greet.

For approximately fifteen years, Sanford maintained a close association with the Theatre Guild, performing in Broadway productions and on tour. Among his Theatre Guild credits were Porgy and Strange Interlude, both of which he also performed on the London stage. His Broadway appearances between 1916 and 1941 included Valley Forge, Sweet Mystery of Life, Danton's Death, and Native Son, among other productions.

Sanford's connection to Orson Welles began in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1922, when the seven-year-old Welles came backstage to meet him following a touring performance of Mr. Pim Passes By. Years later, Sanford departed the Theatre Guild to join Welles's Mercury Theatre company. His Mercury debut came in the 1938 stage production of Heartbreak House, in which he played Mazzini Dunn — a role he had originally created in the Theatre Guild's world premiere production eighteen years earlier.

Sanford subsequently appeared in several of Welles's films. In Citizen Kane (1941), he played Herbert Carter, a newspaper editor. In 1941, Sanford married psychiatric nursing pioneer Adele Poston, though the marriage was brief. He died on July 7, 1969.