Kenelm Foss papers

Kenelm Foss was an English actor and producer who worked in both theatre and films. He was born on December 13, 1885 in Croydon, Surrey, England. With the encouragement of his father, who hoped his son would become a professional artist, Foss studied art at the Wellesley School of Art and in Paris. His interest, however, soon turned to the theatre and in 1903 he made his first appearance on the London stage at the Court Theatre, which was under the management of Granville Barker. He then went to the Glasgow Repertory Theatre in Scotland where he stayed for almost four years producing plays and acting in some to much acclaim. He returned to London to manage the Lyric Theater in the Strand. G. K. Chesterton wrote the play Magic especially for Foss in 1913. The play was very successful and received front-page cover in the Daily Sketch. Foss produced the first performance of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard in England and in Europe. After other successful productions, including that of Githa Sowerby's Rutherford and Son (1912), he contracted tuberculosis and was inactive for a time. In early 1915 Foss began a career directing motion pictures utilizing the production techniques and acting skills he learned in the theatre. Following a relapse of TB, he returned to the theatre and in the early 1920s he spent some time in New York City where he produced a play on Broadway starring John Barrymore.

Foss published several novels, works of poetry, and biographical studies of Richard Brinsley Sheridan and J. M. W. Turner. With Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and others he published in 1920 Practical Course in Cinema Acting in Ten Complete Lessons.

In 1925 Foss's career took a dramatic turn when he opened a sandwich bar in London. The restaurant, which featured 60 different sandwiches daily, attracted Foss's theatrical and movie friends and soon became a great success, so much so that he opened more "Sandys" to accommodate the demand.

In 1907 Foss married the actress Elisabeth Gilson. They had six children, two of whom died in childhood. Kenelm Foss died in 1963.