William Bramwell Downing (b.c.1862)

He was the son of the Rev. M.M. Downing, of Los Angeles and not related to the other Downings who made names for themselves in connection with the stage. For many years, he was in the merchant tailoring business with his brother at Binghamton, New York. When he joined a Masonic Lodge and took part in an amateur theatrical he was encouraged to turn professional. He was taken on by Robert Downing’s company, playing a minor part, but Downing objected to Bramwell appearing on the program as a "Downing" so he consented to use "Bramwell" which followed him for the remainder of his career. By 1902 he had become the leading man of the Murray Hill stock company and billed as, "one of the leading (and most popular) stars in the country".

In 1907, at the Empire Room in Delmonico's, New York, he married Minnie Seligman, the former wife of Robert Livingston Cutting III. At the time, Bramwell was described as having been a leading man in the Chicago Opera House stock company. After their marriage they became a very successful double-act in vaudeville right up until Minnie's premature death in 1919. Minnie died a wealthy woman, leaving an estate of $235,000.

It would seem that he was the same William Bramwell Downing who reappeared in 1922, then described as, "a baritone and a member of the Metropolitan Opera" when he married Lora Nettie Wallin from Johnson City, Tennessee - "thirty years his junior". Her family recalled him as, "well-educated, an Oxford man possibly, had plenty of money, and worked on Wall Street," as well as owning several Feldspar mines in Northern Quebec. "Bill" and "Nettie" lived between a year-round apartment at the Waldorf-Astoria, an estate in Rye, and a summer home at Lake Placid. Nettie sang with the Metropolitan Opera and toured Europe with the company but eventually became an alcoholic which led to their divorce.