Gareth Hughes : The First Welsh Film Star & Missionary / intothelonging.com

Gareth on the web.

Before 2004 when I first launched my Gareth Hughes web site there was little, if any, comprehensive material about him on the web. Today, a search on Google will throw quite a number of references but, I am afraid, they are not all reliable.

The Wikipedia page on Gareth is a prime example. It contains no less than ten errors or inaccuracies. Because anyone can edit the pages on Wikipedia it has been vandalised and poorly edited on many occasions. Because of this I have given up correcting it.

Specialist silent movie sites tend to have no more than a photograph and, maybe, the odd mention of a film or two. Glen Pringle's site (csse.monash.edu.au), silentsaregolden.com and classicmovies.org have links to my site and silentera.com has a biography (supplied by me) and a link.

imdb.com has a comprehensive list of films in which Gareth appeared bar one, about which there is confusion in the records.

Many of the references which appear on a search are articles or interviews relating to Kelvin Guy published by various newspapers and the BBC online and his site desertpadre.co.uk. Guy's grandmother was one of Gareth's many cousins. Unfortunately, every one of these sources contains either errors or inaccuracies. Guy insists on calling his project "Desert Padre" when, in fact, another priest is known by that title. Guy insists on claiming author J M Barrie, Doug Fairbanks Jnr, Mary Pickford and Bette Davis as "close" friends of Gareth. This is simply not true. Gareth met Barrie twice and was in awe of him. Douglas Fairbanks Jnr was only a teenager when Gareth was at the peak of his film career (1921) and told me that he couldn't recall ever meeting Gareth. He knew Pickford and coached Davies in The Corn Is Green but was not "close" friends with either. In terms of friendship Gareth moved in altogether different circles.
In one article or interview Guy suggests that Gareth had a mansion in Hollywood with a swimming pool. Not so. He had a town house and a redwood and field stone lodge in Laurel Canyon - not a swimming pool in sight.
Guy talks of Gareth swapping his lavish lifestyle "in a heartbeat" for a life in the desert. Sadly, Gareth lost the "trappings of fame, celebrity, privilege and wealth", as Guy puts it, fifteen years before he took up his post in Nevada.
These are just a few of the inaccuracies or errors.
Kelvin Guy has produced a short documentary on his relative, a short section of which can be seen on his web site. Some of the inaccuracies I have mentioned are repeated in that short section of film. The film also claims that "nobody knows why he gave it up" - it being Gareth's fame and wealth. I know why, because I have researched his life meticulously and I will explain why in my book.
I just hope that connoisseurs of the silent film who see Mr Guy's film will not be too angry that he mentions Douglas Fairbanks Jnr yet shows a photo of his father!

The National Library of Wales is currently preparing a digital gallery of famous Welsh people for which I have provided a short biography and some photographs. As soon as the site goes live I will update this.