Lauri De Frece

Lauri de Frece, born Maurice de Frece on 3 March 1880 in Liverpool, was an English actor and singer who worked across musical theatre and silent film before his death on 25 August 1921 at the age of 41. He came from a prominent theatrical family: his father, Harry de Frece, managed the Gaiety Music Hall in Liverpool and ran a theatrical agency, and three of his brothers — Jack, Isaac, and Walter — all pursued careers in theatre management and production. Despite their father's efforts to steer the sons toward other professions through education at the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys, the theatre claimed each of them. At the Liverpool Institute, de Frece was a contemporary of the conductor Albert Coates.

De Frece built his stage career through a series of musical theatre roles in Britain and the United States. In 1910 he appeared as Blatz in The Balkan Princess, and in 1912 he took the role of Brissard in an Edinburgh production of Franz Lehár's operetta The Count of Luxembourg, performing alongside Daisy Burrell, Phyllis Le Grand, Eric Thorne, and Robert Michaelis. In 1914 he appeared on Broadway in the musical To-Night's the Night, playing the role of Henry. He subsequently appeared as Walter in The Happy Day in 1916 and as Tonio in The Maid of the Mountains.

In 1914, following the death of producer H. G. Pelissier, de Frece married Pelissier's widow, Fay Compton. The two later appeared together in the 1917 film The Labour Leader. De Frece also appeared in the films Once Upon a Time and All the Sad World Needs, both released in 1918. He died in Trouville-sur-Mer, Normandy, in August 1921 from undisclosed causes. His widow, Fay Compton, remarried in February 1922 to Leon Quartermaine.