Agnes Gavin (1872–1947), was an Australian actor and screenwriter in the
silent film era. She worked in collaboration with her husband
John Gavin
John A. Gavin (born Juan Vincent Apablasa; April 8, 1931 – February 9, 2018) was an American actor who was the president of the Screen Actors Guild (1971–73), and the United States Ambassador to Mexico (1981–86). Among the films he appeared ...
throughout her career. She wrote the majority of his films and was arguably the first specialist screenwriter in the history of the
Australian film industry. In newspapers she was advertised as the "well known picture dramatizer" and was praised for creating "cleverly constructed stories". Many of her films are considered
lost.
Early life
She was born in Sydney as Agnes Adele Wangenheim. At the age of eighteen, she married Barnett Kurtz, and became Agnes Kurtz. Barnett Kurtz had attempted to divorce Agnes in March 1897. Kurtz read a letter to the court in which Agnes said she wanted a divorce; Agnes said she did not want to divorce and wrote the letter just to annoy her husband; the divorce was not granted. In December 1897 Agnes sued for the divorce on the grounds of adultery by her husband and it was granted. Their divorce was highly publicized.
On 3 October 1898 Agnes married stage actor
John Gavin
John A. Gavin (born Juan Vincent Apablasa; April 8, 1931 – February 9, 2018) was an American actor who was the president of the Screen Actors Guild (1971–73), and the United States Ambassador to Mexico (1981–86). Among the films he appeared ...
, and for many years they worked together in Vaudeville and
Bland Holt
Bland Holt (born Joseph Thomas Holt, (24 March 1851 – 28 June 1942)Dennis Shoesmith,, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 4, MUP, 1972, pp 413-414. Accessed 1 August 2009 was a comedian and theatrical producer, active in Australia.
...
's stage company.
In 1904, Agnes Gavin was accused of abusing her neighbor with violent language, as well as menacing her with a hammer and threatening to chop down her door with an ax. The court ordered her bound to the peace for six months.
In her first marriage she had a daughter named Isadore, who died on 12 September 1913. John Gavin died in 1938 and Agnes followed in 1947. The couple is survived by two daughters and several grandchildren.
Career
In 1910, Gavin and her husband made their first film together,
''Thunderbolt'', produced by
H. A. Forsyth. John Gavin played the main character. In their next film with Forsyth, ''
Moonlite
''Moonlite'' is a 1910 bushranger film about Captain Moonlite, played by John Gavin, who also directed. It was also known as Captain Moonlite and is considered a lost film.
It followed on the success of ''Thunderbolt'' (1910), also made by Gav ...
'', Gavin played an aboriginal girl named Bunda Bunda while wearing
blackface.
Agnes Gavin then went on to write several films for
Crick and
Finlay
Finlay is a masculine given name, and also a surname. The given name is represented in Scottish Gaelic as Fionnlagh.
Given name Finlay
* Finlay Mickel, Scottish skier
*Finlay Currie (1878–1968), Scottish actor
* Finlay Calder, Scottish rugby pl ...
, which her husband directed.
In 1911, her husband started his own production company, the Gavin Photo-Play Studio. She wrote the films he directed, occasionally playing in them alongside her husband.
The pair were best known for making films about
bushrangers
Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who used the bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term had evolved to refer to those who took up "robbery unde ...
such as
Captain Thunderbolt
Frederick Wordsworth Ward (1835 – 25 May 1870), better known by the self-styled pseudonym of Captain Thunderbolt, was an Australian bushranger renowned for escaping from Cockatoo Island, and also for his reputation as the "gentleman bushra ...
,
Captain Moonlite
Andrew George Scott (5 July 1842 – 20 January 1880), also known as Captain Moonlite, though also referred to as Alexander Charles Scott and Captain Moonlight, was an Irish-born New Zealand immigrant to the Colony of Victoria, a bushranger the ...
,
Ben Hall and
Frank Gardiner
Frank Gardiner (1830 – c. 1882) was an Australian bushranger who gained infamy for his lead role in the a robbery of a gold escort at Eugowra, New South Wales in June 1862. It is considered the largest gold heist in Australian history. Gard ...
, and
convict-era melodramas.
An article about the making of ''Ben Hall'' said the "dramatisation of the book" was in her "capable hands."
She adapted her 1917 film ''
The Murder of Captain Fryatt
''The Murder of Captain Fryatt'' is a 1917 Australian silent film about the execution of Captain Charles Fryatt during World War I from John and Agnes Gavin. It is considered a lost film.
Plot
The Gavins claimed the plot "followed closely the ...
'' into a play: ''Captain Fryatt; Or, For King and Country''.
In 1918 she and her husband moved to Hollywood, returning briefly to Australia in 1922 and then permanently in 1925.
Filmography
*''
Thunderbolt
A thunderbolt or lightning bolt is a symbolic representation of lightning when accompanied by a loud thunderclap. In Indo-European mythology, the thunderbolt was identified with the 'Sky Father'; this association is also found in later Hel ...
'' (1910)
*''
Moonlite
''Moonlite'' is a 1910 bushranger film about Captain Moonlite, played by John Gavin, who also directed. It was also known as Captain Moonlite and is considered a lost film.
It followed on the success of ''Thunderbolt'' (1910), also made by Gav ...
'' (1910) (also known as: Captain Moonlite)
*''
Ben Hall and his Gang'' (1911)
*''
Frank Gardiner, the King of the Road'' (1911)
*''
Keane of Kalgoorlie'' (1911)
*''
The Mark of the Lash
''The Mark of the Lash'' is a 1911 Australian silent film. It is a Convicts in Australia, convict-era melodrama made by the husband-and-wife team of John Gavin (director), John and Agnes Gavin.
Plot
The movie broke into the following chapters:
# ...
'' (1911)
*''
The Drover's Sweetheart'' (1911)
*''
Assigned to his Wife'' (
1911
A notable ongoing event was the Comparison of the Amundsen and Scott Expeditions, race for the South Pole.
Events January
* January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ...
)
*''
The Assigned Servant'' (1911)
*''
An Interrupted Divorce'' (
1916
Events
Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix.
January
* January 1 – The British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that had been stored and cooled.
* J ...
)
*''
Charlie at the Sydney Show'' (1916)
*''
The Martyrdom of Nurse Cavell
''The Martyrdom of Nurse Cavell'' is a 1916 Australian silent film about the execution of nurse Edith Cavell during World War I.
Although one of the most popular Australian silent movies ever made, it is considered a lost film.
Synopsis
The st ...
'' (1916)
*''
The Murder of Captain Fryatt
''The Murder of Captain Fryatt'' is a 1917 Australian silent film about the execution of Captain Charles Fryatt during World War I from John and Agnes Gavin. It is considered a lost film.
Plot
The Gavins claimed the plot "followed closely the ...
'' (1917)
*''
His Convict Bride'' (1918) (also known as: ''For the Term of Her Natural Life'')
*''
Trooper O'Brien'' (1928) (originally ''The Key of Fate'')
Scripts
*''The White Hope'' (announced 1911)
*''Outlaw Ned Kelly and His Gang'' (registered on 27 December 1917)
*''Binda's Mistress of the Girl of the Soil'' (registered in 1930)
Books
*''Golden Heart, or Odds On'' (1923)
*''Money Down Brown'' (1926)
Copyright registration
at National Archives of Australia
Plays
*''Captain Fryatt; or, for king and country : dramatised from the scenario'' (1917)
References
External links
*
Agnes Gavin
at Women Film Pioneers Project
Agnes Gavin
at Trove
Trove is an Australian online library database owned by the National Library of Australia in which it holds partnerships with source providers National and State Libraries Australia, an aggregator and service which includes full text documen ...
Agnes Gavin
at Australian Woman's Register
Agnes Gavin
at National Film and Sound Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gavin, Agnes
1872 births
1948 deaths
Australian women screenwriters
Writers from Sydney
Women film pioneers
20th-century Australian screenwriters
20th-century Australian women writers