Walter Louis Bradfield (13 June 1866 – 12 August 1919), was an English actor and singer who starred in Edwardian musical comedy and other theatrical works.
Biography The son of William Bradfield, a civil servant, Bradfield was born on 13 June 1866, educated at the Grocers' School, Hackney, and first appeared on stage in 1889 in a pantomime at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham.'Bradfield, W. Louis, actor' in Who's who in the theatre (1914) In 1888, before taking up the theatrical life, he had married Jessie B. Best.John Parker, 'Bradfield, W. Louis, actor' in The Green Room Book; or, Who's Who on the Stage vol. 4 (1909), p. 60: "Bradfield, W. Louis, actor; b. London, June 13th, 1866; s. of William Bradfield, civil servant; e. at Grocers' School; m. Jessie B. Best, 1888; first appeared at Theatre Royal, Nottingham, 1889, in pantomime..."
Bradfield's notable roles include playing the leading man, Captain Coddington, in the Broadway production of the musical comedy In Town, which opened in New York in 1897, in which Bradfield played a hard-up army officer who takes all the actresses of the Ambiguity Theatre out to lunch and marries one of them.Gerald Martin Bordman, American Musical Theatre (2001) p. 175Munsey's Magazine, vol. 22 (1900), p. 145: "Mr. Louis Bradfield, undeniably clever artist as he is, as was shown on his visit to America two years ago with 'In Town'..."
His other stage engagements in leading roles, most of them in London's West End, included A Gaiety Girl (1893–1894), as Bobbie Rivers; The Geisha (1896), as Dick Cunningham;Stanley Green, Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre (1980), p. 146 The Girl from Kays (1902–1903), as Harry Gordon; The Little Michus (1905–1906); and The Merveilleuses (1906–1907), as Lagorille, the Incroyable.
On 4 September 1905 Bradfield played in a one-day cricket match at Lord's, representing "The Actors" against "The Jockeys". He scored six runs and was bowled by Chaloner.Actors v. Jockeys scorecard for 4 September 1905 at cricketarchive.com, accessed 28 January 2012
In 1908 The Actors' Birthday Book said of Bradfield -
He died at Brighton on 12 August 1919.John Parker, Who's Who in the Theatre (1967), p. 1596: "Bradfield, W. Louis, Actor and Vocalist, died 12 Aug., 1919".Walter Louis Bradfield at cricketarchive.com, accessed 28 July 2012
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