Cavendish Morton (1874–1939) was a British actor, photographer, and art director. Morton was born in New York City to British parents, and made his stage debut in a New York production of ''The Prodigal Daughter''. He moved to London in the late 1890s and worked with the companies of Charles Wyndham and H. Beerbohm Tree. He was the author of ''The Art of Theatrical Make-up'' (1909) and ''Cinema Acting: A Handbook for Amateurs'' (1914), a presumed-to-be

lost book A lost literary work (referred throughout this article just as a lost work) is a document, literary work, or piece of multimedia, produced of which no surviving copies are known to exist, meaning it can be known only through reference, or litera ...

that may be the earliest British guide to film acting. He also directed the 1916 silent film '' The Broken Melody''. He was married to the novelist and actress

Concordia Merrel Concordia Merrel (born Mary Phyllis Joan Logan; 10 September 1885 – 18 May 1962) was a British stage and silent film actress, photographer's model and a prolific author of romantic fiction. Biography She was born as Mary Phyllis Joan ...

, who posed for many of his photographs, and with her was the father of the twin painters Cavendish Morton and Concord Morton. After a period of nomadic wandering the family settled in

Bembridge Bembridge is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish located on the easternmost point of the Isle of Wight. It had a population of 3,848 according to the 2001 census of the United Kingdom, leading to the implausible claim by so ...

in the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

where the couple home-schooled their sons with an emphasis on the arts. He died in a London nursing home on 29 June 1939 aged 65. Much of his photographic work was lost when his studio caught fire during the

London Blitz London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Western Europe, with a population of 14.9 million. London stands on the River Tha ...

bombing of World War II.

References

External links

* * 1874 births 1939 deaths 20th-century British photographers 20th-century British male actors British art directors {{UK-photographer-stub