Born Today September 23: William Archer

1856-1924

Writer and critic William Archer was born today in Perth, Scotland in the UK.  A part of his childhood was spent in Norway; while there he became interested in the native writer Henrik Ibsen. He later attended the University of Edinburgh and received an M.A. from there in 1876.  A year before this, he started writing for the Edinburgh Evening News.  By 1879, he had made the move to London and was the senior dramatic critic for the London Figaro.  He later moved over to The World, a bi-weekly paper that was published up until 1920. He worked as a critic at the publication until 1906; in other words, during it's most popular run.  Archer used the position to advocate for the staging of Ibsen plays in the British capital--with much success. One of the aspects of his life that he is well known for today, is his introduction of Ibsen to the British stage.  Archer himself was also a playwright (which constituted only a small portion of his writings--he also penned biographies and studies of literary works).  Archer, through an extra-martial relationship with a popular actress, became quite influential in the theater community--this was furthered by his friendship with George Bernard Shaw.  Archer's own success in the theater would not come until after the cessation of World War I (the war had taken his only child--his son Tom--during the war he had actually worked as a writer for the British war propaganda department).  In 1921, his play The Green Goddess--a melodrama--was staged at the Booth Theater in New York--it's production was a success and the play became instantly popular.  It is this play that, in 1923, was turned into a film. The film shared the play's title and was directed by Sidney Olcott and featured Alice Joyce.  This was the only film of his work filmed during his lifetime, and the only one in the silent era.  In fact, all of the films that he is credited with as source material for adapted screenplays of his dramatic works comes from this one play.  Other works used in films come from his personal translations of Ibsen.  The UK production The Green Goddess (1930), directed by Alfred Green, was a Vitagraph full sound talkie (the play was used twice more in films released in 1939 and 1943--one a short).  The last time (to date) that his work was used for a film came with the made for television A Doll's House, a live performance presented in real time on the BBC--the film is amongst the lost (his contribution to another made for television movie based on translations of Ibsen had come earlier--in 1950--also on the BBC).  Archer died suddenly in a London nursing hospital after surgical complications arose after he under went a procedure to remove a cancerous kidney tumor on the 27th of the December in 1924. He was 68 years old.  I can find no information on his interment. 

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