Henry Wilcoxon (8 September 1905 – 6 March 1984) was an actor born in Roseau, Dominica, British West Indies, and best known as a leading man in many of Cecil B. DeMille's films, also serving as DeMille's associate producer on his later films.

Biography

Henry Wilcoxon was born Harry Frederick Wilcoxon on 8 September 1905 in Roseau, Dominica. His father was Robert Stanley Wilcoxon (known as "Tan"), manager of the Colonial Bank in Jamaica, and his mother Lurleene Minuette Núñez de Córdoba, who had been an amateur theatre actress.


Childhood
Following is a summary of the early childhood of Henry (Harry) and his brother Robert Owen Wilcoxon (Owen), from his autobiography.


"Harry was about eleven months old when his mother Lurleene died suddenly (and, to the children, mysteriously). Tan immediately sent his children off to England in spite of his own mother's refusal to take care of them owing to poor health. Harry was still in diapers (nappies) and his brother Owen was nearly four when their grandmother met them.
"Tan advertised for a foster home and the brothers were sent to the first family that responded. There Harry and Owen were locked in an attic room and fed leftovers while the money and clothing that came with them went to the family's own children. Harry and Owen were kept in appalling conditions, both afflicted with lice, Harry crippled with rickets and Owen developed a lifelong stutter and epileptic fits.
"Even when the abuse was discovered, neither father nor grandmother wanted to take them back; instead the boys were sent to an orphanage and might have remained there if a good foster home not heard of their plight and considered taking them in. The Stewart family (consisting mainly of maiden sisters), with a large house in Acton, accepted the abandoned children. The youngest, Ruth, took special care of Owen. Harry had atrocious behaviour but was taken in hand by an elder sister Sara. The boys had to call each sister “Auntie”, were taught table manners, sent to Sunday school, tutored in school work and Harry's legs fitted with braces.
"After several years Tan Wilcoxon appeared from the West Indies with a new wife Rosamund [née Richards] and it was decided to unite Harry and Owen with their father and new “mother”. Harry was seven and Owen almost ten. Tan took them back to Bridgetown, Barbados. Life with father and “that woman Rosa" was unhappy. Harry was sent to Harrison College, Barbados. At 14 Harry was the underwater swimming champion of Barbados and good enough to become a salvage diver. Then he was sent to Woolmere College in Kingston, Jamaica. With the end of the war in 1918, Tan sent Harry to Ashford Boarding School in Kent, and Owen to sea “to make a man of him”. Harry remained at the school for all his high school years - even on summer holidays, excepting those times he was allowed to visit the Stewart “aunties” for a weekend."
Harry and Owen were known as 'Biff' and 'Bang' to friends and family due to fighting skills gained in amateur boxing.

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