N.Z. ACTOR TO APPEAR ON BROADWAY

Chronicle (Levin), 14 November 1946, Page 8

N.Z. ACTOR TO APPEAR ON BROADWAY

LONDON, Nov. 12. A New Zealand acu.r wnn an excelient wai recoid will shortly be appeiir.ng in a play on Broadway, New 1 ork. no is Alr. Nigel Neilson, tormerJy irom j-lawke ?s Bay. Alr. Neilson has lieen playing a minor part* in " Love (iues to l'ress, " and is oue of six British aetors invited to go with the play to Americu. It will open m Wasliington, go to Phiiadelphia and linally to Broadway. Alr. Neilson, who came to Loiulon in 1 938, won a scholarship practising at ihe Royal Acadeiny of i)rauiatic Art, but vvlien vvar was declared he inimediatelv joined the Stall'ordshire Yeonianry and was commissioned in a eavalry division. E'arly in 1940 he was in Palestine wliere he volunteered for the Trans-Jordaniah Frontier Forces and was appointed second-in-coniniand. In the Syrian campaign he took part in one of the last modern eavalry eharges against the Spahis, Subsequently he servecl with the tanks in the Desert and was awarded the Alilitary Cross at Barz Ridge just before the batfle rff E1 Alamein for rescuing wounded from tanks under fire. He served with the 'Desert Rat?" at the battle of Aladanme and was in the Balerno landiiig with them. After a period at the Royal ArmourmI Corps headquarters in Italv he passi*d tlie tStafi' College course at Camberley and then volunteered as a parachutist with the special air services. During the battle of Ardennes he was brigade major to Colonel G. Prendergast, who liad previously commanded the Long-range Desert Group. Alr. Neilson eomnuinded two French battalions and returned with them for equipment before they were dropped -in Holland. The French awarded hitn tlie Croix de Guerrc and the Legion d 'Honeur and h'e finished up the war in Vorway wliere he was Chief of Stal'f at Bergen. ' - Alr, Neilson, who is a hue singer atJ well as a straight actor, is eiitlinsiastic about his opportunity to ajipear on Broadwav.