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Stephen Haggard

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For the professor of political science, see Stephan Haggard.

Stephen Haggard
Stephen Haggard
Born(1911-03-21)21 March 1911
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Died25 February 1943(1943-02-25) (aged 31)
Egypt
Resting placeHeliopolis War Cemetery
NationalityBritish
Occupation(s)Actor, writer, poet, intelligence officer
Years active1930s–1940s

Stephen Hubert Avenel Haggard (21 March 1911 – 25 February 1943) was a British actor, writer and poet.

Early life

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A member of the Haggard family, he was born on 21 March 1911 in Guatemala City, Guatemala, to Sir Godfrey Digby Napier Haggard, a British diplomat, and his wife Georgianna Ruel Haggard.[1] He was the great-nephew of author H. Rider Haggard, and the brother of photographer and author Virginia Haggard, the companion of the painter Marc Chagall.[2] Haggard was educated at Haileybury College, where he became close to the artist-schoolmaster Wilfrid Blunt.[3]

Training and career

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After an initial foray into journalism, and determined to obtain some overseas experience,[4] Haggard moved to Munich, where he studied for stage at the Munich State Theatres under Frau Magda Lena.[4] He made his stage debut at the Schauspielhaus in October 1930 in the play Das kluge Kind directed by Max Reinhardt. He later appeared as Hamlet at the same theatre.[1][4]

Upon Haggard's return to the United Kingdom in 1931, his career path was initially discouraging: he received only small parts in various London plays and worked in repertory in Worthing.[1] He undertook further study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art[4] and subsequently received good notices when he played Silvius in Shakespeare's As You Like It in London in 1933.[4] He was noticed by the playwright Clemence Dane and made his first appearance in New York in 1934 as the poet Thomas Chatterton in her play Come of Age.[1][4] Returning to Britain, he had successful roles in a number of plays, including Flowers of the Forest, a production of Mazo de la Roche's Whiteoaks, and he appeared as Konstantin in Chekhov's The Seagull,[4][5] and was hailed as one of the most promising and handsome classical actors of the era.[6]

Haggard married Morna Gillespie in September 1935, and they had three children, of whom one died young,[1][7][8] and another is the director Piers Haggard.[1][9] His granddaughter is actor Daisy Haggard.[10]

In 1938, Haggard returned to New York to reprise his role as Finch in Whiteoaks, which he also directed.[1][4] His novel Nya was published in the same year.[1] He appeared as Mozart in the film Whom the Gods Love (1936). The film was not a success, in part because Haggard was considered to be inexperienced, and was unknown. He also appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's film Jamaica Inn (1939)[1][11] and subsequently appeared as Lord Nelson in the Carol Reed film The Young Mr. Pitt (1942).[12]

Second World War

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At the outbreak of the Second World War Haggard joined the British Army, serving as a captain in the Intelligence Corps.[1] His wife and two sons went to the United States in 1940, where his father was consul-general in New York. Shortly after their departure, he wrote his sons a letter, which was published in the Atlantic Monthly later that year as "I'll Go to Bed at Noon: A Soldier's Letter to His Sons."[13] Haggard was posted to the Middle East and worked for the Department of Political Warfare.[5][6] There he met the author Olivia Manning and her husband, the broadcaster R. D. Smith. The latter recruited Haggard to play starring roles in his productions of Henry V and Hamlet on local radio in Jerusalem.[5] Manning based the character Aidan Sheridan in her Fortunes of War novel sequence on Haggard.[6][14]

Death

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While in the Middle East, Haggard fell in love with a beautiful Egyptian married woman whose husband worked in Palestine. Haggard was overworked and felt that the war had destroyed his acting career. He was on the edge of a nervous breakdown when after some months the woman decided to end the relationship. Haggard shot himself on a train between Cairo and Palestine on 25 February 1943 at the age of 31.[6][14]

The manner of Haggard's death was hushed up and is not mentioned in the biography of Haggard written by Christopher Hassall and published in 1948.[14] Haggard is buried in Heliopolis War Cemetery, in Cairo, Egypt.[15]

Filmography

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Year Title Role Notes
1936 Whom the Gods Love Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (film debut)
1937 Knight Without Armor Minor Role Uncredited
1939 Jamaica Inn Willie Penhale – Sir Humphrey's Gang
1942 The Young Mr. Pitt Lord Nelson (final film role)

Works

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  • Haggard, S. (1938). Nya. London: Faber and Faber Limited
  • Haggard, S. (1944). I’ll Go to Bed at Noon: A Soldier’s Letter to His Sons. London, Faber and Faber
  • Haggard, S. (1945). The Unpublished Poems of Stephen Haggard. Salamander Press
  • Athene Seyler with Stephen Haggard (1946). The Craft of Comedy. New York : Theatre Arts

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j "Haggard is dead on active service; British Actor and novelist, Son of Consul General Here, Was Army Captain in Near East". The New York Times. 4 March 1943. p. 7. Retrieved 1 January 2009.
  2. ^ Harshav, Benjamin (2004). Marc Chagall and his times : a documentary narrative. Stanford University Press. p. 565. ISBN 978-0-8047-4214-6.
  3. ^ Kermode, Frank (1988). "Introduction". Nya. Oxford University Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-19-282135-5.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Bell, Nelson, B. (13 March 1938). "Youthful Hamlet Supports Star As Actor-Director in 'Whiteoaks'". The Washington Post. pp. TT7.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ a b c Braybrooke, Neville and June (2004). Olivia Manning: a life. London: Chatto & Windus. p. 114. ISBN 978-0-7011-7749-2.
  6. ^ a b c d Cooper, Artemis (1989). Cairo in the war 1939–1945. London: Hamilton. p. 160. ISBN 0-241-12671-1. OCLC 18742516.
  7. ^ Blunt, Wilfrid (1983). Married to a single life : an autobiography, 1901–1938. Wilton, Salisbury, Wiltshire: M. Russell, 1983. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-85955-100-7.
  8. ^ Gullen, Zoe; Sefton, Daniel, eds. (16 June 2005). "Piers Inigo Haggard". Debrett's People of Today. Debrett's Peerage Limited.
  9. ^ McFarlane, Brian; Slide, Anthony (2003). The Encyclopedia of British Film. London: Methuen. pp. 279. ISBN 978-0-413-77301-2.
  10. ^ "Daisy Haggard: 'If I had Botox, my career would be over'". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  11. ^ Low, Rachael (2005). The History of British Film. Vol. 7. Routledge. pp. 164–65. ISBN 978-0-415-15652-3.
  12. ^ Evans, Peter William (2005). Carol Reed. Manchester University Press. p. 177. ISBN 978-0-7190-6367-1.
  13. ^ Fiscus, James W. (2004). "I'll go to bed at noon: A soldier's letter to his sons". Critical Perspectives on World War II. The Rosen Publishing Group. pp. 62–69. ISBN 978-1-4042-0065-4.
  14. ^ a b c Braybrooke, Neville and June (2004). Olivia Manning: a life. London: Chatto & Windus. p. 250. ISBN 978-0-7011-7749-2.
  15. ^ "Commonwealth War Graves Commission: Casualty Details". www.cwgc.org. Retrieved 2 January 2009.
  • Hassall, Christopher (1948). The Timeless Quest: Stephen Haggard. London: Arthur Barker.
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