Click on picture to see a short cinefilm of Gareth

picture used with permission of University of Nevada,Reno Library

Clara Kimball Young, May McAvoy, Bela Lugosi and Rudolph Valentino.  What do they all have in common? The answer, William John Hughes.  Born on  August 23rd 1894 at Waun-Wrla,Halfway Llanelli,  the son of John and Ann Hughes. Who? William John Hughes he was Wales’ first Broadway and Hollywood star!
He began acting at a very young age, firstly here in Wales, then later at 17 years of age he was allowed to go to London to pursue his passion for acting.  After a time, he joined the Welsh Players and travelled on tour with them to America.(There was another actor from Llanelli called Eleanor Daniels on the tour)  When they returned to the UK (the tour was a flop) he decided to stay on in America and became very successful on Broadway.  
He appeared in many productions such as Little Miss Llewellyn, Change and a play by J.M.Barrie called The New World, and later went onto star in a film based on another book written by Barrie entitled Sentimental Tommy, which was made in 1921. Even though he had already appeared in many films before this he   always  regarded Sentimental Tommy as his favourite and most successful. In total he made forty five films spanning 1918 to 1931, and was also the Welsh dialect coach, on The Corn Is Green made in 1945 starring Bette Davis (another welsh connection).
Ceil.B.DeMille called him “a young idealist”.
Fulton Ousler describes him as” the charm boy to end all charm boys”
I’ve called him “A Forgotten Welsh Hero”
His stage name was Gareth Hughes, and at the height of his popularity he was earning as much as $2000 a week.  He was under contract to the big film studios of the time including Fox and MGM, who are still big players in the film world today.
In 1929 like many others he lost his fortune in the Wall Street crash and was left penny less, but he carried on making films until 1931 when he appeared in Scarce Heads.
He then decided to leave the world of film and return to theatre, which he had always been his first love. His last performance ran for 18 weeks in 1938 at the Hollywood Playhouse and University of Michigan where he starred as Shylock in the Merchant of Venice.
In the early 1940’s he decided it was time to leave this life style behind, having led a full and exciting but also lavish and selfish life he now wanted to change and instead give something back to others. Adopting the name of Brother David he became a missionary to the Paiute Indians on the Pyramid Lake Reservation of Nevada.  He spent almost 14 years(1944 to 1958)with his “children”, as he liked to call them and is still loved and remembered as Bro to this day.
In 1958 he decided to return to Llanelli to spend his last years here.  My mother remembers coming home from school and finding him sitting down having a cup of tea with my grandmother. But he longed for the sunshine of California and after 5 months he returned to the states. My grandmother always spoke fondly of William John, she’d always insist on digging out the letters that he had sent to her mother, some which I have copies of.
He went on to spend his retirement at the Motion Picture Home in Woodland Hills, California where he died on October 1st. 1965 after a long illness.
His remains are at the Masonic garden of remembrance in Reno, Nevada which I had the privilege of visiting to pay my respects to a forgotten Welsh Hero.

Pyramid Lake Productions Ltd. 2007 ©