Bruce McRae

Who was Bruce McRae?

Bruce McRae January 15, 1867, India - May 7, 1927 City Island, New York, was an American stage and early silent film actor. He was the nephew of actor Sir Charles Wyndham.

Born in India in 1867 of Scots and English parents, he went to New Zealand at the age of sixteen where he worked in cattle ranching. Later, adopting the profession of surveyor, he moved to Australia for five years.

In 1890, he moved to the United States where he became manager of a cattle ranch in Laramie, Wyoming and a year later made his first appearance on stage supporting Elsie de Wolfe and Forbes Robertson in Thermidor at Proctor's 23rd Street Theatre. The two years following this he appeared in Aristocracy by Bronson Howard, who was married to his aunt, and then spent one season in Shenandoah by the same playwright.

The season of 1895–1896, he played in The Fatal Card by C. Haddon Chambers and the following year supported Olga Nethersole, playing the leading juvenile roles in Camille, Denise by Alexander Dumas, Frou-Frou by Henri Meilhac, The Wife of Scarli by Giuseppe Giacosa and The Daughter of France, after which came two years as leading man with Herbert Kelcey and Effie Shannon in A Coat of Many Colors and Clyde Fitch's The Moth and the Flame.