Julian Royce

Julian Royce (26 May 1866 – 10 May 1946), born William Leonard Gardener, was a British stage and film actor whose Broadway career spanned from 1900 to 1931. Christened in Chorlton-upon-Medlock, he adopted the stage name Julian Royce by 1891, the year he and his first wife, actress Elizabeth Mary Day, known professionally as Nora Day, were touring together. The couple had married in 1889 and shared the stage in 1897 in The New Magdalen. The following year they appeared in Sporting Life, written by Seymour Hicks and Cecil Raleigh and performed at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, where Royce took on the role of the villain Malet de Carteret. Nora died of cancer in 1898 at the age of 40. Royce subsequently married Ivy Herzog, who had also appeared in the cast of Sporting Life, and the two frequently performed and toured together in the years that followed.

In 1900, Royce and Herzog traveled to America as part of a company with Lillie Langtry, making his Broadway debut in The Degenerates, in which he and Herzog played Sir William and Lady Saumarez. After returning to Britain, the couple toured in The Messenger Boy, with Royce in the role of the villainous Pyke. During this period he also worked for producer Charles Frohman, playing the title role in William Gillette's Sherlock Holmes on multiple occasions. He and Herzog additionally toured with Mrs. Patrick Campbell.

Royce returned to Broadway several times over the following decades, appearing in Detective Sparks in 1909, Caste in 1910, and Passers-by in 1911. He took on the role of Duc Lambert in Death Takes a Holiday in 1931, and also appeared on Broadway in Declassee, which ran from 1919 to 1920.

Alongside his stage work, Royce built a film career beginning in the silent era and continuing through the 1930s. His screen credits include Iron Justice (1915), Honour in Pawn (1916), Derelicts (1917), Not Negotiable (1918), The Bigamist (1921), The Persistent Lovers (1922), Running Water (1922), The Knockout (1923), God's Clay (1928), This Is the Life (1933), Call Me Mame (1933), She Was Only a Village Maiden (1933), Leave It to Blanche (1934), Two Hearts in Harmony (1935), So You Won't Talk (1935), and Birds of a Feather (1936). Royce died in Hailsham in 1946 at the age of 79. His wife died later that same year.