Hugh Buckler

Hugh Chilman Buckler (9 September 1881 – 30 October 1936) was a British actor born in London, England, whose career spanned stage work across Australia, England, and the United States, as well as an extensive body of film work. He was married to stage actress Violet Paget, who was related in some way to the Marquess of Anglesey. Their son, John Buckler, also became a film actor.

Buckler's early career took him through touring productions in England. In 1909, he and Paget performed with George Willoughby's Farcical Comedy Company, touring Weedon Grossmith's The Night of the Party. That production subsequently traveled to Australia under the management of Rupert Clarke and Clyde Meynell, opening at the Princess's Theatre in Melbourne on 26 February 1910. The couple went on to establish Sydney's Little Theatre in 1913. Their son John, then around eight years old, had remained in England during his parents' touring years, but rejoined them in Australia around August 1914, where his aptitude for acting became apparent.

With the outbreak of the First World War, Buckler, a reserve officer with the Royal Irish Rifles, volunteered for service and received a commission with his former regiment. He departed Melbourne aboard the R.M.S. Maloja on 12 January 1915 and saw combat with the 4th Battalion, Worcester Regiment. Although rumors circulated that he had been killed in action or had suffered a below-the-knee amputation, neither proved true. He was, however, wounded, and his wife and son traveled to Egypt in November 1915, where he had been hospitalized. Following the war, Buckler returned to London, where in 1919 he founded a club he called the Junior Savage, housed in a loft above 5–6 Market Street, off Jermyn Street in Piccadilly.

In March 1923, while appearing in Decameron Nights at Drury Lane Theatre, Buckler faced a charge of passing a cheque while bankrupt, but was acquitted. By 1924, he and Paget had relocated to the United States, joining Henry Jewett's repertory company in Boston. His Broadway career extended from 1923 to 1935 and included appearances in The Ladder, Schweiger, Lost Sheep, Revolt, and Late One Evening, among other productions. During the run of The Ladder in New York in 1926, his wife was reported to be suffering from a severe case of blood poisoning. In 1931, Buckler appeared in New York as Antonio in The Merchant of Venice, opposite Maurice Moscovitch's Shylock.

Buckler's film work began in England, with credits including The Garden of Resurrection (1919), The Lure of Crooning Water (1920), Duke's Son (1920), The Place of Honour (1921), The Nonentity (1921), Belonging (1922), Guy Fawkes (1923), and Carry on, Sergeant! (1928). In 1936, he traveled to Hollywood to visit his son John and was signed that same week to play the role of Gainsford in Lost Horizon (1937). He also appeared in The Last of the Mohicans, The Jungle Princess, and Crash Donovan, all released in 1936. Father and son died together that year when their car left the road and plunged into Malibou Lake.