He began his career in England, in Lady Windermere's Fan, written by Oscar Wilde.

The family were in England by the time of the 1911 census, but his parents' marriage ended shortly afterwards, and his father remarried twice.

On 27 November 1922 at St Martin-in-the-Fields Elystan married Sylvia Ward (div.

The bride was the daughter of the famous caricaturist Sir Leslie Ward (1851-1922).

Over his fifty-year career, he would appear in dozens of films, usually in small roles, although he did have several featured performances, as in 1928's Warned Off,[2] and 1935's Lend Me Your Husband.