Herschel Mayall

Herschel Mayall (July 12, 1863 – June 10, 1941) was an American stage and film actor whose career spanned both the theatrical world and the silent film era. Born in Bowling Green, Kentucky, to James H. Mayall and Merilla L. Mayall, he died in Detroit, Michigan, from a cerebral hemorrhage.

Mayall's stage career took shape through a series of regional theater engagements beginning in the late nineteenth century. In 1897 he joined the Pike Opera House Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, remaining with the company until the theater was destroyed by fire in 1902. He returned to Cincinnati in 1905 to perform with the Forepaugh Stock Company, with which he worked for three seasons. By 1906 he had established himself on the West Coast, where he was regarded as San Francisco's most popular actor at the time the 1906 earthquake forced the closure of the Alhambra Theatre, where he had been performing. In the aftermath, Mayall joined fellow actors from that theater to form a traveling company that performed in cities including Salt Lake City and Reno, Nevada.

His Broadway career ran from 1911 to 1912. He portrayed Father Roubier in The Garden of Allah in 1911 and took the role of Laertes in Hamlet in 1912. He also directed Deep Channels on Broadway in 1929.

Alongside his stage work, Mayall built a substantial career in silent film, appearing in more than 110 films between 1912 and 1935.