Claude Austin Trevor Schilsky (7 October 1897 – 22 January 1978) was an Irish actor who had a long career in film and television.[3]
He played the parson in
John Galsworthy's Escape at the world premiere in London's
West End in 1926 and was the only member of the cast to transfer to
New York City for the
Broadway production a year later.[4][5] He played Captain August Lutte in
Noël Coward's Bitter Sweet during the long first run of the show in the
West End from 1929 to 1931. He was the first actor to play
Agatha Christie's detective
Hercule Poirot on screen in three British films during the early 1930s: Alibi (1931), Black Coffee (1931) and Lord Edgware Dies (1934). He subsequently turned up in a character part in a later Poirot adaptation The Alphabet Murders in 1965.[6] He stated that he only got the Poirot role because he could speak with a French accent.[7][8]
^Mark Campbell (2015). Agatha Christie: The Books, the Films and the Television Shows featuring Poirot, Miss Marple and More. Oldcastle Books.
ISBN978-1843444244.
^Adrian Room (2010). Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins (fifth ed.). McFarland. p. 481.
ISBN978-0786457632.