Arthur Maude

Arthur Maude
On set at Flying A Studios, 1916
Born	July 23, 1880 Pontefract, West Yorkshire
Died	January 9, 1950(1950-01-09) (aged 69) Paddington, London
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1900 - 1950

Arthur John Maude (23 July 1880 – 9 January 1950) was an English actor, screenwriter, and film director.

Maude was born Arthur John Maud on 23 July 1880 in Pontefract, West Riding, Yorkshire, to William Robert Maud (1849-1919) and his wife Lucy Monkman (1853-1929). He would make the claim in later years that he was also the nephew of British general Sir Frederick Stanley Maude, the World War I hero of the Mesopotamia campaign, but this is not supported by British census returns and vital records.

Maude began his career as a stage actor. He played for six years with John Martin Harvey's stage company and then became the manager and leading man in Constance Crawley's company in America, including the male lead in the 1910 Broadway production of Mr. and Mrs. Daventry. He and Crawley, who was separated from her husband, began living together, and he took over managing her career. The two continued to play opposite each other in, and to co-write, films during World War I, including six with the short-lived American Film Manufacturing Company (Flying "A" Studios) of Santa Barbara, California, which at the time was one of the largest motion picture studios in the United States.

After Crawley's death in 1919, Maude continued to act, write screenplays and direct films. He is probably best known for his role as Dr. Gilbert Trent in the 1922 Harry Houdini film The Man from Beyond, which was his last major acting role in a film. However, Maude continued to direct, and he acted in bit parts as well. His last major film project in the United States was the 1927, patriotic-themed silent movie The Flag: A Story Inspired by the Tradition of Betsy Ross, for which he was both writer and director. Although the film was short, a two-reeler that ran about 20 minutes, it was produced in color using the Technicolor process.