Evan Thomas (February 17, 1891 – 1982), also known as Peter Evan Thomas was a Canadian-born British character actor, whose career spanned both the silent and

sound film A sound film is a Film, motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, bu ...

eras. He began his career in England, in '' Lady Windermere's Fan'', written by

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

. Born Elystan Owen Evan Thomas on 17 February 1891 in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, where his father, Owen Grant Evan Thomas (1861)-1942) was the manager of the Opera House until 1896. The family were in England by the time of the 1911 census, but his parents' marriage ended shortly afterwards, and his father remarried twice. On 27 November 1922 at St Martin-in-the-Fields Elystan married Sylvia Ward (div. 1940), at a time when they were both appearing in plays in London theatres. The bride was the daughter of the famous caricaturist Sir Leslie Ward (1851-1922). Elystan appeared in silent films in Great Britain and beginning in 1930 worked in both Hollywood and England, before returning permanently to the British film industry after 1946. Over his fifty-year career, he would appear in dozens of films, usually in small roles, although he did have several featured performances, as in 1928's '' Warned Off'', and 1935's ''Lend Me Your Husband''. He died on 13 July 1982 at Tunbridge Wells.

Filmography

(Per AFI and BFI databases) *'' Lady Windermere's Fan'' (1916) *''Wisp o' The Woods'' (1919) *''The Starting Point'' (1919) *'' Once Aboard the Lugger'' (1920) *'' The Constant Nymph'' (1928) *'' Warned Off'' (1928) *'' Inside the Lines'' (1930) *'' Women Who Play'' (1932) *'' Tin Gods'' (1932) *'' The Girl from Maxim's'' (1933) *'' Mrs. Dane's Defence'' (1933) *'' Ask Beccles'' (1934) *''

The Scarlet Pimpernel ''The Scarlet Pimpernel'' is the first novel in a series of historical fiction by Baroness Orczy, published in 1905. It was written after her stage play of the same title (co-authored with her husband Montague Barstow) enjoyed a long run in Lo ...

'' (1934) *'' Lend Me Your Husband'' (1935) *'' Spy of Napoleon'' (1936) *'' Knight Without Armour'' (1937) *''

The High Command ''The High Command'' is a 1937 British drama film directed by Thorold Dickinson and starring Lionel Atwill, Lucie Mannheim and James Mason. It was shot at Ealing Studios and location filming, on location on the Gold Coast (British colony), Gold ...

'' (1937) *'' O.H.M.S.'' (1937) *'' For Valour'' (1937) *'' The Buccaneer'' (1938) *'' Bulldog Drummond in Africa'' (1938) *'' Bulldog Drummond's Peril'' (1938) *'' Arrest Bulldog Drummond'' (1938) *'' Kidnapped'' (1938) *''

If I Were King ''If I Were King'' is a 1938 American biographical and historical film starring Ronald Colman as medieval poet François Villon, and featuring Basil Rathbone and Frances Dee. It is based on the 1901 play and novel, both of the same name, by ...

'' (1938) *'' Lord Jeff'' (1938) *'' The Little Princess'' (1939) *''

The Hound of the Baskervilles ''The Hound of the Baskervilles'' is the third of the four Detective fiction, crime novels by British writer Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Originally serial (literature), serialised in ''The Strand Magazine'' from ...

'' (1939) *'' North West Mounted Police'' (1940) *'' British Intelligence'' (1940) *'' The Blonde from Singapore'' (1941) *'' One Night in Lisbon'' (1941) *'' The Royal Mounted Patrol'' (1941) *'' They Met in Bombay'' (1941) *'' A Yank in the R.A.F.'' (1941) *'' Drums of Fu Manchu'' (1943) *'' First Comes Courage'' (1943) *'' The Man from Down Under'' (1943) *'' Two Tickets to London'' (1943) *'' Appointment in Berlin'' (1943) *'' Frenchman's Creek'' (1944) *'' Our Hearts Were Young and Gay'' (1944) *'' The Uninvited'' (1944) *'' Diamond Horseshoe'' (1945) *'' My Name Is Julia Ross'' (1945) *''

The Picture of Dorian Gray ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' is an 1890 philosophical fiction and Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish writer Oscar Wilde. A shorter novella-length version was published in the July 1890 issue of the American period ...

'' (1945) *'' Kitty'' (1946) *'' Rendezvous 24'' (1946) *'' Sweetheart of Sigma Chi'' (1946) *'' Tomorrow Is Forever'' (1946) *'' Children Galore'' (1954) *''Vanishing Act'' (1962) *''The Sporting Chance'' (1964) *''Women in Crisis My Grandmother'' (1964) *''Whatever Happened to George Foster?'' (1965)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Evan (actor) 1891 births 1982 deaths 20th-century Canadian male actors Canadian male stage actors British male silent film actors Canadian male silent film actors Male actors from Vancouver Canadian emigrants to England Canadian expatriates in England British expatriate male actors in the United States