Nigel De Brulier

De Brulier was born in Frenchay, a suburb of Bristol on August 8, 1877 as Francis George Packer, the son of James Packer, a Gloucestershire coachman, and his wife Louisa Packer (née Field).[1][2] De Brulier launched his career as an actor and singer on the stage in his native country and transferred to the American stage after moving to Canada and then to the United States in 1898.[3] In the 1900 U.S. census he was recorded as Francis G. Packer, butler, in a private household in Denver, Colorado. His first film role was a poet in The Pursuit of the Phantom in 1914.[4] In 1915 he acted in the film Ghosts based on a play by Henrik Ibsen.[5]

He portrayed Cardinal Richelieu in the following four films, The Three Musketeers (1921), The Iron Mask (1929), The Three Musketeers (1935) and The Man in the Iron Mask (1939).[5]

He appeared with Douglas Fairbanks in The Gaucho (1927)[6] and was also one of the few actors of the silent era who reached reasonable success in talkies, although his roles in them were quite minor. He played the wizard Shazam in the 1941 Republic serial Adventures of Captain Marvel and also acted in Charlie Chan in Egypt in 1935.[7]

He played Jokaanan, the Prophet in a silent film version of Oscar Wilde's Salome (1923). A clip of De Brulier in Salomé was used in Before Stonewall, a film documenting the gay rights movement.[8] His French-born wife, Natale Octavia de Brulier (1879-1969), was a Christian Science practitioner, and their daughter, Josephine de Brulier (b. Los Angeles, 1911), was an assistant librarian.

De Brulier died in Los Angeles on January 30, 1948. He was interred at Grand View Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.[9]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nigel De Brulier.

• Nigel De Brulier at IMDb