William Graham Moffat (21 February 1866 – 12 December 1951) was a Scottish actor, director, playwright and spiritualist. Moffat formed a Men's League for Women's Suffrage in Glasgow in 1907 after his wife

Maggie Moffat Margaret Moffat born Margaret Liddell Linck (7 January 1873 – 19 February 1943) was a British actress and suffragette. She was amongst the first Scottish suffragettes to be arrested. She appeared in several films including a minor part in Alfr ...

was arrested at a protest in London and imprisoned for refusing to pay the fine. He is known for his 1910 comedy ''Bunty Pulls the Strings'' which was a hit on Broadway.

Life and career

He was born on 21 February 1866 to William Moffat and Helen Dobson.Clan Moffat Genealogy
/ref> The third of eight children, he was born in

Glasgow, Scotland Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

. There, he was exposed at an early age to the theatres and sixpenny galleries of the city and to numerous famous comedians and entertainers of the day. He was married in 1897 to the stage actress and costume designer, Margaret Liddell Linck (1873–1943). His wife was also a

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to vo ...

, and in 1907 Graham Moffat founded the Men's League for Women's Suffrage in Glasgow. He also penned a suffrage propaganda play, ''The Maid and the Magistrate''. Bunty Pulls the Strings lobby card

A few years later his comic play ''Bunty Pulls the Strings'' was a huge hit in London's West End, his biggest success, running for 617 shows at the

Haymarket Theatre The Theatre Royal Haymarket (also known as Haymarket Theatre or the Little Theatre) is a West End theatre in Haymarket, London, Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in ...

in 1911. In reviewing the play when it debuted on Broadway late in 1911, the ''New York Times'' classed Moffat beside

J. M. Barrie Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, (; 9 May 1860 19 June 1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several succe ...

and wrote, "it is the freshest and most wholesome thing that the theatres in New York have housed since the days of ''Peter Pan''." The Scottish actress Molly Pearson played the title role of Bunty in New York. The comic actor James Finlayson played Bunty's father both New York and in London. Moffat toured ''Bunty Pulls the Strings'' in New Zealand in 1914 The play was made into a (now lost) film in 1921. Moffat himself directed at least one film, ''Till the Bells Ring'', a 46-minute experimental sound film based on the comedy of the same name he mounted in 1908. The film starred Moffat, his wife and his daughter. He was living in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

, by 1950 and he died there in 1951, aged 85. Another of Moffat's works, ''Susie Tangles the Strings'', was staged by the Edinburgh Gateway Company as their New Year play in 1956.Elder, Michael (2003), ''What do You do , During the Day?'', Eldon Productions, p. 99,

Publications

Besides his plays, he published at least three books: * ''The Pawky Scot'' (1928), a book of Scottish humour, with illustrations by Arthur Moreland. * ''Towards Eternal Day: the Psychic Memoirs of a Playwright'' (1950) in which he revealed his belief that his dead father and brother helped from the dead in writing his plays. He also wrote on the supposed return from the dead of

Sarah Bernhardt Sarah Bernhardt (; born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress who starred in some of the most popular French plays of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including by Alexandre Dumas fils, ...

. * ''Join Me in Remembering'' (posthumous, 1955) incomplete upon his death and finished by his daughter.

References

External links

Sheet music for ''Bunty Pulls the Strings''
* *

at

Complete Index to World Film The Complete Index to World Film (citwf or citwf.com) is an online database of information related to movies. Citwf, compiled online by Alan Goble and Valan Publishing since 2004, had a Guinness Record as the world's largest published film-rela ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moffatt, Graham 1951 deaths 1866 births 19th-century Scottish male actors 19th-century Scottish dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Scottish male actors 20th-century Scottish dramatists and playwrights Male actors from Glasgow Scottish emigrants to South Africa Scottish film directors Scottish spiritualists Scottish suffragists Scottish theatre directors British male feminists