1891-02-08 ( 134 years old ) in Richmond, Surrey, England, UK
British leading man of primarily American films, one of the great stars of the Golden Age. Raised in Ealing, the son of a successful silk merchant, he attended boarding school in Sussex, where he first discovered amateur theatre. He intended to attend Cambridge and become an engineer, but his father's death cost him the financial support necessary. He joined the London Scottish Regionals and at the outbreak of World War I was sent to France. Seriously wounded at the battle of Messines--he was gassed--he was invalided out of service scarcely two months after shipping out for France. Upon his recovery he tried to enter the consular service, but a chance encounter got him a small role in a London play. He dropped other plans and concentrated on the theatre, and was rewarded with a succession of increasingly prominent parts. He made extra money appearing in a few minor films, and in 1920 set out for New York in hopes of finding greater fortune there than in war-depressed England. After two years of impoverishment he was cast in a Broadway hit, "La Tendresse". Director Henry King spotted him in the show and cast him as Lillian Gish's leading man in The White Sister (1923). His success in the film led to a contract with Samuel Goldwyn, and his career as a Hollywood leading man was underway. He became a vastly popular star of silent films, in romances as well as adventure films. The coming of sound made his extraordinarily beautiful speaking voice even more important to the film industry. He played sophisticated, thoughtful characters of integrity with enormous aplomb, and swashbuckled expertly when called to do so in films like The Prisoner of Zenda (1937). A decade later he received an Academy Award for his splendid portrayal of a tormented actor in A Double Life (1947). Much of his later career was devoted to "The Halls of Ivy", a radio show that later was transferred to television "The Halls of Ivy" (1954). He continued to work until nearly the end of his life, which came in 1958 after a brief lung illness. He was survived by his second wife, actress Benita Hume, and their daughter Juliet Benita Colman.
Movies
Goldwyn: The Man and His Movies
2001-10-07
The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
1988-10-01
That's Entertainment, Part II
1976-05-16
Hollywood: The Selznick Years
1961-12-31
The Story of Mankind
1957-11-08
Around the World in Eighty Days
1956-10-17
Champagne for Caesar
1950-05-11
The Art Director
1949-11-12
A Double Life
1947-12-25
The Late George Apley
1947-03-19
Kismet
1944-10-01
Random Harvest
1942-12-17
The Talk of the Town
1942-08-20
My Life with Caroline
1941-08-01
Lucky Partners
1940-08-02
The Light That Failed
1939-12-24
If I Were King
1938-09-28
The Prisoner of Zenda
1937-09-03
Lost Horizon
1937-03-03
Under Two Flags
1936-04-30
A Tale of Two Cities
1935-12-25
The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo
1935-11-14
Clive of India
1935-01-25
Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back
1934-08-15
The Masquerader
1933-09-03
Cynara
1932-12-24
Arrowsmith
1931-12-07
The Unholy Garden
1931-10-06
The Devil to Pay!
1930-12-18
Terra Melophon Magazin Nr. 1
1930-09-12
Raffles
1930-07-11
Condemned!
1929-11-03
Bulldog Drummond
1929-05-02
The Rescue
1929-01-12
Two Lovers
1928-03-23
The Magic Flame
1927-09-17
The Night of Love
1927-01-22
The Winning of Barbara Worth
1926-10-14
Beau Geste
1926-08-24
Kiki
1926-04-04
Lady Windermere's Fan
1925-12-26
Stella Dallas
1925-11-16
The Dark Angel
1925-09-27
Her Sister from Paris
1925-08-01
A Thief in Paradise
1925-06-18
The Sporting Venus
1925-04-12
His Supreme Moment
1925-04-12
Romola
1924-12-06
Her Night of Romance
1924-11-24
Tarnish
1924-08-01
Twenty Dollars a Week
1924-04-12
The White Sister
1923-09-05
Anna the Adventuress
1920-02-01
The Toilers
1919-03-01
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