Albert Edward Anson (14 September 1879 – 25 June 1936) was a British stage and screen actor. Born in London, he made his first appearance onstage in 1895. He left the stage briefly to pursue a degree in engineering and returned to appear with Beerbohm Tree's company in 1904. He gained fame as a Shakespearian actor appearing on London and New York stages. In 1931, Anson made his screen debut in John Ford's film Arrowsmith. Director Frank Capra cast him to play the "High Lama" in his film Lost Horizon, but Anson died before filming so the role was given to Sam Jaffe. Anson died on 25 June 1936, in Monrovia, California, and was buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles. Stage career His father was the Shakespearean and character actor George W. Anson. His stage debut was at the Court Theatre in London on 27 April 1895. In 1904 (like his father at around this time) he joined Herbert Beerbohm Tree's company. In 1905 he played Brabantio in Othello, his first major role. In 1905 he toured the US: he appeared in the play The Toast of the Town by Clyde Fitch, with Viola Allen and Hassard Short. He first appeared in New York in 1902, in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. As a member of the New Theatre Company, which included many English actors, he was in the first play produced in the New Theatre in New York, opening on 6 November 1909, playing Octavian in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, and was in Galsworthy's Strife, opening on 17 November. The company produced Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, which opened on 7 November 1910, Anson playing Master Ford. This last play came in December 1910 to Toronto, where a reviewer wrote, "Mr. Anson was especially fine as the jealous husband Ford. Indeed his was a performance that deepened the significance of the play." He was in The Witness for the Defence by A. E. W. Mason, which ran for 64 performances at the Empire Theatre, opening in December 1911. This came to Toronto, where the same reviewer wrote, "Mr. A. E. Anson... is known to be one of the most eloquent actors of the day – a man much of the type of Sir George Alexander, the possessor of a beautiful voice and the bearing of a person of distinction as he is supposed to be in the