William L’Estrange Millman (1926)

Honestly, we know very little about Mr. Millman, but his stage name — L’Estrange — is too fantastic to not give him recognition as an alum of the theatre!

William Millman was born on 7 May 1883 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He was an actor, known for The Lost City (1935), Silent Barriers (1937) and Motive for Revenge (1935). He died on 19 July 1937 in Hollywood, California, USA. [https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0589812/]

Our main sources of history — Mary’s biography, Edwin Levy’s Thesis, Rose Lewis’ Thesis, and Theodore Borrillo’s book — offered no additional information about his time at Elitch Theatre. (Mary’s biography lists his name in the appendix, but no actual information on him.)

But, we’ve found a few articles, and his obituary, that offers a glimpse of…L’Estrange!

Mr. Millman passed away in 1937 and we have an obituary from the New York Times (see below.) Text of the obituary is as follows:

HOLLYWOOD, Calif., July 19.- William L’Estrange Millman, an actor, who last appeared on the New York stage in 1933 in “Forsaking All Others,” died here today after a brief illness. He was born in Canada fifty-four years ago. Among the stars whom Mr. Millman had supported in New York theatres were Julia Marlowe, Robert Mantell, Leo Ditrichstein, William Faversham and Tallulah Bankhead. Since 1934 he had been acting in motion pictures. His last screen role was in “The Silent Barrier.”
1937-07-20 William L’Estrange Millman – NYT Obituary

Also, please see the image below of a “program” from his appearance in the summer of 1926. For that season they printed the program on a fan and we have a scan of one surviving copy of the fan. You’ll note that the summer cast was very impressive, he acted alongside Fredric March, Beulah Bondi, Florence Eldridge, Douglas Dumbrille, and Cora Witherspoon! (Click the links to check out the alumni pages for this amazing cast!)

Seasons at the Theatre

1926

Productions/Roles:

1926: Week of June 12: The Swan, by Ferenc Molnar

Notable Roles, Awards, and Other Work:

Mr. Millman appeared with Tallulah Bankhead.

Elitch Theatre Connections:

In 1918, Mr. Millman appeared on Broadway in the revival of the play, Daddy-Long-Legs, with multiple Elitch Theatre Alumni: Cora Witherspoon, Frances Goodrich, and Charles Trowbridge. In 1926 Ms. Witherspoon and Mr. Millman would appear together in the summer stock cast at Elitch Theatre. [source]