Biography for
Ronald Colman

Birth name

Ronald Charles Colman

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Height

5' 10" (1.78 m)

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Mini biography

Born Richmond, Surrey, England on February 9, 1891. Height 5 feet 11 inches; dark brown hair and eyes; weight 158 pounds. Father: Charles Colman, not in the business. Educated at Littlehampton, Sussex, England. Hobbies: Tennis, motoring, reading and swiming. He was in the British Army during World War I. Two years on stage in England, UK

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IMDb mini-biography by

<curbow@best.com>

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Mini biography

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 financil 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 invalided out of service scarcely two months after shipping out for France. Upon his recovery, 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 his film The White Sister (1923). His success in the film led to a contract with Samuel Goldwyn, and career as a Hollywood leading man was underway. He became a vastly popular star of silent films, in romances as well as adventure films. With the coming of sound, his extraordinarily beautiful speaking voice made him 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. 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.

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IMDb mini-biography by

Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>

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Spouse

Benita Hume	(30 September 1938 - 19 May 1958) (his death)
Thelma Raye	(18 September 1920 - 1 August 1934) (divorced)

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Trade mark

Rich, mellifluous voice.

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Trivia

Daughter Juliet Benita Colman (b. 1944)

He made his film debut in an unreleased two-reel short made in 1919. Its title is unknown, and references to it as 'Live Wire, The (1917)' apparently erroneously connect it to a play of that title in which Colman appeared around the same time.

His recording of "A Christmas Carol", originally released in a Decca 78-RPM set in 1941, was the first recorded version to win wide acclaim.

Portrayed Dr. William Hall on NBC Radio's "The Halls of Ivy" (1950-1952) with his wife Benita Hume.

Fought with the British Army in World War I, and was wounded during the Battle of Ypres.

In his early film career he was panned by many critics for his overtheatrics (used in the stage work he was doing at the time) and his pronounced limp (from a bad war injury). He credited working with greats such as George Arliss for overcoming those obstacles.

When he made his mark in Hollywood as a handsome young silent actor, there were some who doubted he would translate well to "talkies." His subsequent success in radio (he made a multi-volume recording of the Shakespeare sonnets, as well) proves them wrong with a vengeance.

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Personal quotes

"Fame has robbed me of my freedom and shut me up in prison, and because the prison walls are gilded, and the key that locks me in is gold, does not make it any more tolerable."

[To his agent] "Before God I'm worth 35 dollars a week. Before the motion picture industry I'm worth anything you can get."

"They talk of the artist finding liberation in work, it is true. One can be someone else in another, more dramatic, more beautiful world."

"Whenever I hear of young actors down and out and broke in New York, (and what a cliche of show business it is supposed to be!) I remember my own experiences in 1921 - and find it no laughing matter by any criterion."

"I persevered in those English films, and persevered is the word, though I am the first to admit that I was a very bad actor in them."

"I loathe war. I'm inclined to be bitter about the politics of munitions and real estate which are the reasons of war. It certainly taught me to value the quiet life and strenghtened my conviction that to keep as far out of range of vision as possible is to to be as safe as possible."<QU> <QU>"I visited agents, knocked at producers' doors; no one was interested. I was just another stage actor on tour, on the outside of Hollywood looking in. I returned to New York depressed and disappointed."

"Why should I go to dull parties and say dull things just because I wear greasepaint and make love to beautiful women on the screen?"

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Salary

Lost Horizon (1937)

$162,500

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Biography from Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia:

The very model of British charm and culture, this impeccable leading man also possessed one of the most beautiful voices ever heard. A former office boy who dabbled in amateur theatricals before enlist- ing in Her Majesty's Army during World War 1, he returned to England after being wounded in 1916. He appeared both on stage and screen as a juvenile leading man, making his film debut in a short subject called The Live Wire (1917), and emigrating to the United States a short time later. He appeared on stage and in a few minor film roles before being spotted by Lillian Gish, who selected him as her leading man in The White Sister (1923) and, the following year, in Romola. Robust heroics were not in the Colman repertoire, but he made a handsome and convincing romantic lead in $20 a Week, Her Night of Romance (both 1924), His Supreme Moment, The Sporting Venus, Her Sister From Paris, The Dark Angel, Stella Dallas, Lady Windermere's Fan (all 1925), and Kiki (1926) before adding derring-do to his image as the dashing Foreign Legionnaire in Beau Geste (also 1926).

Following the success of that lavish adventure film, Colman enjoyed a period of popularity as one of the screen's top stars; under contract to Samuel Goldwyn (and frequently teamed with beautiful Vilma Banky) he top-lined such films as The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926, in which he was nearly upstaged by newcomer Gary Cooper), The Night of Love, The Magic Flame (both 1927), Two Lovers (1928), and The Rescue (1929). The advent of talking pictures aided Colman's career immeasurably; his cultured, mellifluous voice perfectly complemented his appearance. He was Oscar-nominated for his tongue-in-cheek portrayal of a reckless adventurer in Bulldog Drummond (1929), a joyously entertaining comedymelodrama; he repeated the role five years later in Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back one of those rare sequels that is superior to the original.

Following that auspicious debut, Colman starred in a string of generally wellreceived (if occasionally stodgy) early talkies, including Condemned (1929, another Oscar-nominated performance), Raffles (in the title role), The Devil to Pay (both 1930), Arrowsmith (one of his best parts, in this Sinclair Lewis adaptation), The Unholy Garden (both 1931), Cynara (1932), and The Masquerader (1933). Signing with Darryl F. Zanuck's 20th Century Pictures to do the Drummond sequel, he remained for Clive of India and The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo (both 1935). Then, as a freelancer, he embarked upon a series of remarkable roles that essentially defined the Colman screen persona most people remember.

At MGM he played the role of Sydney Carton (sans mustache) in the lavish adaptation of Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities and was identified ever after with its memorable finale ("'Tis a far, far better thing that I do ..."). He then returned to the Foreign Legion in Under Two Flags (1936), in which both Claudette Colbert and Rosalind Russell vied for his attentions. Frank Capra's Lost Horizon (1937) gave Colman the role he was born to play, that of soldier-statesman Robert Conway, the intended leader of the Tibetan paradise known as Shangri-la. It was another role, like Sydney Carton, that he personalized and made his own. He played a dual role in The Prisoner of Zenda (1937, for producer David O. Selznick), and was equally convincing as the weak-willed King Rudolf V and the daring Rudolph Rassendyl who would save his throne; he and Madeleine Carroll made a particularly striking couple. He then became the fourth (and most successful) actor to tackle the role of French poet Francois Villon in If I Were King (1938), effortlessly reciting the title poem (which became part of every nightclub mimic's routine when impersonating him), and went on to play an artist gradually losing his sight in The Light That Failed (1939).

Following two frivolous star vehicles (1940's Lucky Partners with Ginger Rogers and 1941's My Life With Caroline with Anna Lee), he returned to peak form in The Talk of the Town (1942), a brilliant comedy-drama directed by George Stevens, in which he played a Supreme Court justice-elect locked in philosophical debate with fugitive Cary Grant. A novel by the author of "Lost Horizon," James Hilton, gave him another plum role: Random Harvest (1942) cast him as a post-WW1 amnesiac taken under the wing of music-hall star Greer Garson; it netted Colman his third Academy Award nomination. In Kismet (1944) he played a wily Arabian Nights magician, which offered a change of pace but little else.

It was becoming increasingly difficult for the middle-aged actor to find suitable starring roles. When Colman returned to the screen in 1946, it was in a character lead as a stuffy Boston patriarch in the witty film version of John P. Marquand's The Late George Apley. He followed it with a chillingly effective performance as an actor who finds it increasingly difficult to separate his stage work from reality in the backstage melodrama A Double Life (1947, written by Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon), a tour de force for which he finally won a Best Actor Oscar. He made only a few more film appearances after that, most notably as the game-show contestant in the comic Champagne for Caesar (1950). He finished up his film career lending a touch of class to the juvenile Irwin Allen "spectacle" modestly called The Story of Mankind (1957). When film work became scarce, Colman busied himself on radio-a perfect medium for an actor with his wonderful voice. He hosted and guest-starred on scores of shows, and he and his wife, actress Benita Hume, were recurring guests on "The Jack Benny Show." A radio series was created especially for them in the late 1940s: in "The Halls of Ivy," Colman played college president William Todhunter Hall, and the popular show later had a brief TV run in 1954-55. It was a perfect vehicle for this most perfect gentleman. Colman is buried in Montecito, California, near the fashion able San Ysidro Ranch, which he owned and operated for many years.

Copyright © 1994 Leonard Maltin, used by arrangement with Signet, a division of Penguin Putnam, Inc.

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