18 Facts About Stephen Haggard

Stephen Hubert Avenel Haggard was a British actor, writer and poet.

Stephen Haggard was the great-nephew of author H Rider Haggard, and the brother of photographer and author Virginia Haggard, the companion of the painter Marc Chagall.

Stephen Haggard was educated at Haileybury College, where he became close to the artist-schoolmaster Wilfrid Blunt.

Stephen Haggard made his stage debut at the Schauspielhaus in October 1930 in the play Das kluge Kind directed by Max Reinhardt.

Stephen Haggard later appeared as Hamlet at the same theatre.

Stephen Haggard undertook further study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and subsequently received good notices when he played Silvius in Shakespeare's As You Like It in London in 1933.

Stephen Haggard was noticed by the playwright Clemence Dane and made his first appearance in New York in 1934 as the poet Thomas Chatterton in her play Come of Age.

Stephen Haggard married Morna Gillespie in September 1935, and they had three children, of whom one died young, and another is the director Piers Stephen Haggard.

In 1938, Stephen Haggard returned to New York to reprise his role as Finch in Whiteoaks, which he directed.

Stephen Haggard appeared as Mozart in the film Whom the Gods Love.

The film was not a success, in part because Stephen Haggard was considered to be inexperienced, and was unknown.

Stephen Haggard appeared in Alfred Hitchcock's film Jamaica Inn and subsequently appeared as Lord Nelson in the Carol Reed film The Young Mr Pitt.

At the outbreak of the Second World War Stephen Haggard joined the British Army, serving as a captain in the Intelligence Corps.

Stephen Haggard was overworked and felt that the war had destroyed his acting career.

Stephen Haggard was on the edge of a nervous breakdown when after some months the woman decided to end the relationship.

Stephen Haggard shot himself on a train between Cairo and Palestine on 25 February 1943 at the age of 31.

The manner of Stephen Haggard's death was hushed up and is not mentioned in the biography of Stephen Haggard written by Christopher Hassall and published in 1948.

Stephen Haggard is buried in Heliopolis War Cemetery, in Cairo, Egypt.