Arthur William Sterry (1883–1944) was an Australian filmmaker, actor and theatrical entrepreneur. He was born in

Collingwood, Victoria Collingwood is an inner-city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3km north-east of the Melbourne central business district, located within the City of Yarra Local government areas of Victoria, local government area. Collingwood recorded a ...

and his family moved to

Wagga Wagga Wagga Wagga (; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 57,003 as of 2021, it is an important agricultural, m ...

when he was young. At the age of 18 Sterry moved to Melbourne. He went to work for J. C. Williamson Ltd for a time and ended up establishing his own drama company, Arthur W Sterry's Dramatic Company. He later went to work for the theatrical entrepreneur

Philip Lytton Philip Lytton, (died 21 November 1949) real name Charles Ernest Phillips, was an Australian actor and theatrical entrepreneur best known for producing theatre shows that toured throughout Australia in the early part of the twentieth century. He st ...

, performing in a number of shows including ''

The Waybacks The Waybacks are an American four-piece band based in the San Francisco Bay area of California. Their style has been alternately described as Americana music, Americana, Progressive Bluegrass music, bluegrass, rock-n-roll, Folk music, folk, and A ...

''. When Sterry left Lytton's company, he was given the stage and film rights to the play ''The Man They Could Not Hang'', based on the life story of

John Babbacombe Lee John Henry George "Babbacombe" Lee (15 August 1864 – 19 March 1945) was an Englishman famous for surviving three attempts to hang him for murder. Born in Abbotskerswell, Devon, Lee served in the Royal Navy, and was a known thief. In 1 ...

, including Lytton's 1912 version of the story. Sterry took the film on the road and enjoyed great commercial success exhibiting it, often giving lectures at screenings. He produced his own film version of this story in 1921, as well as a film adaptation of ''

'' (1918). He kept distributing films and dabbling in a number of areas, including retail and property investment, up until his death. His wife Olive disappeared off a boat in 1915.

Select credits

*''

Little Lord Fauntleroy ''Little Lord Fauntleroy'' is a children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was published as a serial in ''St. Nicholas Magazine'' from November 1885 to October 1886, then as a book by Charles Scribner's Sons, Scribner's (the publisher of ...

'' (1909) – play, actor *''

'' (1915) – play, actor *'' The Life Story of John Lee, or The Man They Could Not Hang'' (1912) – film, distributor and exhibitor 1917 onwards *''

'' (1918) – film, director *'' The Life Story of John Lee, or The Man They Could Not Hang'' (1921) – film, director *'' The Man They Could Not Hang'' (1934) – film, actor *'' Tobacco Road'' (1944) – play, actor

References

External links

*
Theatre Credits
at

AusStage AusStage: The Australian Live Performance Database is an online database which records information about live performances in Australia, providing records of productions from the first recorded performance in Australia (1789, by convicts) up unt ...

Arthur Sterry
at

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting, and providing access to a national c ...

Australian male actors 1944 deaths 1883 births {{Australia-actor-stub