Leon Errol at right with (fellow Australian-born) Joe Kirkwood Junior at left. Publicity photo for Monogram Pictures’ Gentleman Joe Palooka (1946). By 1946, both men had long since made the USA their home. Author’s Collection. [*Balmain is a well known inner suburb of Sydney]

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The Five Second version
Sydney born Leon Errol is remembered today for his comedy work in US films – leading roles in shorts for RKO and supporting roles in features such as the Mexican Spitfire and Joe Palooka series. However he really should be celebrated as a pioneer of the stage. Born in 1881 and arriving in the US in about 1903, in a remarkably busy career he built a reputation in the US as a popular and successful stage comedian, singer, dancer, writer and director. His big breakthrough was a teaming with African-American comedian Bert Williams in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1911 and he continued to appear on the stage until the late 1920s. His two decades of success on Broadway was such (he was in the Ziegfeld Follies for five years) that he convinced his parents and siblings to move permanently to the US in 1913. He moved to Hollywood in about 1930 and appeared in films until his death in 1951.
Unfortunately much that has been written about Leon Errol is plainly incorrect – especially that which recounts the first thirty years of his life. It seems that while talented and hard working, he learned much of what he knew on stage in the US – there was no hidden Australian career. The retelling of his early career is hardly surprising, when we consider this narrative partly dates from the golden age of Hollywood. This was an era when Anglo-Indian Merle Oberon was said to be Tasmanian, and Tasmanian Errol Flynn was usually described as Irish.
(This article does not list all of Leon Errol’s many films, but links to some that are online can be found in the references)

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Leon Errol remembers Sydney

Sometime in 1918, 37 year old Broadway star Leon Errol was interviewed by a US magazine about the most striking episode of my life. He chose to recount an event from his childhood, when he was swimming near Iron Cove bridge in Sydney harbour, and a friend named “Jimmy Carter” was killed by a shark.^[1]The Theatre (New York) Vol 28, 1918 via Hathitrust.com<script type="text/javascript"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_18371_20_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_18371_20_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });</script> Doubtless many readers of The Theatre took this account from a well known comedian with a grain of salt. But the story had a firm basis in truth. An 11 year old child named Stephen Carter really had been killed by a shark at Balmain in December 1888 in circumstances identical to Leon Errol’s story.^[2]The hideous injuries the child suffered from an unseen shark would have worried every parent in the suburb. See The Sydney Morning Herald, 10 Dec 1888, P5, via National Library of Australia’s … Continue reading<script type="text/javascript"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_18371_20_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_18371_20_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });</script> Leon Sims, as he was then called, lived only a few streets from Stephen Carter in the inner western Sydney suburb of Balmain, and he would have been 7 years old at the time. Whether he really was there when poor Stephen Carter died or not, the story is one of the few Leon Errol told about his Australian upbringing.

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Balmain photographed from the former naval yard at Cockatoo Island in 2023. The Sims home in Glassop Street was behind the wooded park centre left, while Iron Cove bridge (where the 1888 shark attack occurred) can be seen in the distance on the right. While many of the buildings are modern, 19th century terrace homes can be made out on the left. Author’s Collection {Click photo to enlarge}</figcaption></figure>

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Leon Errol’s family

Born in Sydney in 1881, Leonce Errol Sims was the first born child of Joseph Sims, an accountant,^[3]working at one stage for the very large bureaucracy that was the New South Wales Post Office<script type="text/javascript"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_18371_20_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_18371_20_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });</script> and Elizabeth nee Adams, both originally from Cornwall, England.^[4]</s