Ernest Thesiger

Ernest Thesiger
A charcoal drawing of Ernest Thesiger by John Singer Sargent (circa 1911).
Born	(1879-01-15)15 January 1879 Chelsea, London, England, UK
Died	14 January 1961(1961-01-14) (aged 81) Kensington, London, England, UK
Years active	1916–61
Spouse(s)	Janette Mary Fernie Ranken (1917–1961)

Ernest Frederic Graham Thesiger, CBE (15 January 1879 – 14 January 1961) was an English stage and film actor. He is especially well-remembered for his performance as Doctor Septimus Pretorius in James Whale's film Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

The grandson of the 1st Lord Chelmsford, Thesiger was born in London, England and was the first cousin once removed of the explorer and author Wilfred Thesiger (1910–2003), and the nephew of 2nd Lord Chelmsford, who, exactly a week after Ernest's birth, famously led his troops in battle against — and suffered a defeat at the hands of — a Zulu army at the Battle of Isandlwana.

Thesiger attended Marlborough College and the Slade School of Art with aspirations of becoming a painter, but quickly switched to drama, making his professional debut in a production of Colonel Smith in 1909.
After the outbreak of World War I, on 31 August 1914 Thesiger volunteered as Rifleman No.2546 with the 2nd Battalion of the 9th London Regiment (Queen Victoria's Rifles), T.F. at its Regimental Head Quarters in London's West End. After training in England for 3 months he was sent to the Western Front in late 1914, and was wounded in the trenches on 1 January 1915, and medically evacuated back to England. At a dinner party shortly after his return, someone asked him what it had been like in France, to which he is supposed to have responded "Oh, my dear, the noise! and the people!"