F. Pope Stamper

Frederick Pope Stamper, most often credited as F. Pope Stamper, was an English stage and film actor born on 20 November 1877 in Hammersmith. He worked primarily in Edwardian musical comedy and remained active in both theatre and silent film before his death on 12 November 1950.

Stamper's stage career was underway well before his Broadway appearances. In 1907 he originated the role of the Bandmaster in the musical comedy Miss Hook of Holland at the Prince of Wales Theatre, a production that ran for 462 performances. In 1902 he had married Daisy Leahy, an Irish chorus girl and actress who performed under the stage name Daisy Le Hay, in a ceremony at Lambeth.

His Broadway career spanned 1909 to 1911 and included four musicals. He starred in Kitty Grey and also appeared in The Dollar Princess, The Quaker Girl, and The Siren. The Siren was a Charles Frohman production staged at the Knickerbocker Theatre in 1911. That same year, Stamper played Captain Charteris in A Quiet Girl at New York's Park Theatre, a production that achieved a run of 240 performances.

During his time in New York while performing in The Dollar Princess, Stamper played a round of golf with a Miss Melrose at the Dunwoodie Country Club in Yonkers. He injured her with a sliced drive, and the resulting legal claim became a notable case in the law of torts. Stamper was regarded as a skilled golfer.

His film work was concentrated in the silent era, with screen credits including The Girl from the Sky (1914), Ghosts (1914), The Divine Gift (1918), The Lackey and the Lady (1919), Inheritance (1920), The Pride of the Fancy (1920), and A Master of Craft (1922). He had limited screen work following the transition to sound, appearing in the short films The Musical Beauty Shop (1930) and The Stickpin (1933).

Stamper's brother, Charles William Stamper, served as motor engineer to King Edward VII. His son, Henry Lionel Pope Stamper (1906–1985), left a position his father had secured for him in the City of London to pursue a career as a repertory actor, a decision that angered Stamper. His granddaughter Rosemary Stamper is the mother of the comedian Jack Dee.