Background
The son of the Governor of Melbourne Gaol, John Buckley Castieau (1855–1884), Godfrey Cass was born Godfrey Castieau in 1867, one of seven children.
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Godfrey Cass
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Between 1906 and 1935 he acted in nineteen film roles. He played Ned Kelly three times, and also had roles in a number of other bushranger movies including A Tale of the Australian Bush (1911) and Moondyne (1913). As a child he spent a lot of time around the gaol and met Ned Kelly just before Kelly was hung.
His peak years as an actor were from 1903 to 1914, usually playing the villain in melodramas.
Cass appeared in his first film in 1911 for the Australian Life Company, and followed it with two more movies for the same company. Two years later he partnered with West. J. Lincoln to make films as Lincoln-Cass Films.
The company survived for only one year, but in that time it made eight films, with Cass playing roles in six of them. He then returned to the stage appearing in Sealed Orders for J.C. Cass enlisted in the Army for World War I on 27 January 1915, dropping his age by eleven years, and was discharged on 25 August 1917, suffering from shell shock.
He returned to theatre, working as an actor and director
He also appeared in several films, including playing as Ned Kelly in Harry Southwell"s The Kelly Gang. He died in 1951.
