British actor (1891?1958)
This article is about the actor. For people with similar names, see
Ronald Coleman
.
Ronald Colman
|
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Colman in 1940
|
Born
| Ronald Charles Colman
(
1891-02-09
)
9 February 1891
|
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Died
| 19 May 1958
(1958-05-19)
(aged 67)
|
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Occupation
| Actor
|
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Years active
| 1914?57
|
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Spouses
|
Thelma Raye
(
m.
1920;
div.
1934)
|
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Children
| 1
|
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Ronald Charles Colman
(9 February 1891 ? 19 May 1958) was an English-born actor, starting his career in theatre and
silent film
in his native country, then emigrating to the United States and having a highly successful
Hollywood
film career. He starred in silent films and successfully transitioned to sound, aided by a distinctive, pleasing voice. He was most popular during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.
[1]
He received Oscar nominations for
Bulldog Drummond
(1929),
Condemned
(1929) and
Random Harvest
(1942). Colman starred in several classic films, including
A Tale of Two Cities
(1935),
Lost Horizon
(1937) and
The Prisoner of Zenda
(1937). He also played the starring role in the Technicolor classic
Kismet
(1944), with
Marlene Dietrich
, which was nominated for four
Academy Awards
. In 1947, he won an
Academy Award for Best Actor
and
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor
for the film
A Double Life
.
Colman was an inaugural recipient of a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame
for his work in motion pictures. He was awarded a second star for his television work.
Early years
[
edit
]
Ronald Charles Colman was born in
Richmond
,
Surrey
, England, the third son (his eldest brother died in infancy in 1882)
[2]
and fifth child of Charles Colman, a silk merchant, and his wife Marjory Read Fraser.
[3]
[2]
His surviving siblings were Gladys, Edith, Eric and Freda.
[4]
He was educated at
boarding school
in
Littlehampton
, where he discovered that he enjoyed acting, despite his shyness.
[5]
He intended to study
engineering
at
Cambridge
, but his father's sudden death from
pneumonia
in 1907 made it financially impossible.
[6]
[5]
He became a well-known amateur actor, and was a member of the West
Middlesex
Dramatic Society in 1908?09. He made his first appearance on the professional stage in 1914.
First World War
[
edit
]
While working as a clerk at the British Steamship Company in the
City of London
,
[3]
he joined the
London Scottish Regiment
[7]
[8]
in 1909 as a
Territorial Force
soldier. At the outbreak of the
First World War
, he was mobilised, and sent to France in September 1914. On 31 October 1914, at the
Battle of Messines
,
[7]
Colman was seriously wounded by
shrapnel
in his ankle, which gave him a limp that he would attempt to hide throughout his acting career. As a consequence, he was honorably discharged in 1915,
[9]
and received the
Silver War Badge
due to the wounds received in the war.
[10]
His fellow
Hollywood
actors
Claude Rains
,
Herbert Marshall
,
Cedric Hardwicke
, and
Basil Rathbone
all saw service with the London Scottish in the war.
Career
[
edit
]
Theatre
[
edit
]
Colman had sufficiently recovered from his wartime injuries to appear at the
London Coliseum
on 19 June 1916 as Rahmat Sheikh in
The Maharani of Arakan
, with
Lena Ashwell
, at the
Playhouse
in December that year as Stephen Weatherbee in the
Charles Goddard
/
Paul Dickey
play
The Misleading Lady
, and at the
Court Theatre
in March 1917 as Webber in
Partnership
. At the same theatre, the following year he appeared in
Eugene Brieux
's
Damaged Goods
. At the
Ambassadors Theatre
in February 1918, he played George Lubin in
The Little Brother
. In 1918, he toured the UK as David Goldsmith in
The Bubble
.
[11]
In 1920, Colman went to America and toured with
Robert Warwick
in
The Dauntless Three
and subsequently toured with
Fay Bainter
in
East Is West
. He married his first wife, Thelma Raye, in 1920; they divorced in 1934. At the
Booth Theatre
in New York City in January 1921, he played the Temple Priest in
William Archer
's play
The Green Goddess
. With
George Arliss
at the 39th Street Theatre in August 1921, he appeared as Charles in
The Nightcap
.
[12]
In September 1922, he had great success as Alain Sergyll at the
Empire Theatre
in New York City in
La Tendresse
,
[13]
which was to be his final stage work.
[14]
Film
[
edit
]
Colman had first appeared in films in Britain in 1917 and 1919 for director
Cecil Hepworth
. He subsequently acted for the old
Broadwest Film Company
in
Snow in the Desert
. While he was on stage in New York City in
La Tendresse
, director
Henry King
saw him and engaged him as the leading man in the 1923 film
The White Sister
, opposite
Lillian Gish
. He was an immediate success. Thereafter, Colman virtually abandoned the stage for film.
He became a very popular
silent film
star in both romantic and adventure films, among them
The Dark Angel
(1925),
Stella Dallas
(1926),
Beau Geste
(1926), and
The Winning of Barbara Worth
(1926). His dark hair and eyes and his athletic and riding ability (he did most of his own stunts until late in his career
[
citation needed
]
) led reviewers to describe him as a "
Valentino
type". He was often cast in similar, exotic roles.
[15]
Towards the end of the silent era, Colman was teamed with Hungarian actress
Vilma Banky
under
Samuel Goldwyn
; the two were a popular film team, rivalling
Greta Garbo
and
John Gilbert
.
Although he was a huge success in silent films, he was unable to capitalise on one of his chief assets until the advent of the talking picture ? "his beautifully modulated and cultured voice"
[16]
also described as "a bewitching, finely modulated, resonant voice". Colman was often viewed as a suave English gentleman, whose voice embodied chivalry and mirrored the image of a "stereotypical English gentleman".
[17]
[18]
Commenting on Colman's appeal, English film critic
David Shipman
stated that Colman was "the dream lover ? calm, dignified, trustworthy. Although he was a lithe figure in adventure stories, his glamour ? which was genuine ? came from his respectability; he was an aristocratic figure, without being aloof."
[19]
His first major talkie success was in 1930, when he was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Actor
for two roles ?
Condemned
and
Bulldog Drummond
. He thereafter appeared in a number of notable films:
Raffles
in 1930,
Clive of India
and
A Tale of Two Cities
in 1935,
Under Two Flags
in 1936,
The Prisoner of Zenda
and
Lost Horizon
in 1937,
If I Were King
in 1938, and
Random Harvest
and
The Talk of the Town
in 1942. He won the
Best Actor Oscar
in 1948 for
A Double Life
. He next starred in a screwball comedy, 1950's
Champagne for Caesar
.
At the time of his death, Colman was contracted by
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
for the lead role in
Village of the Damned
. After Colman's death, however, the film became a British production starring
George Sanders
, who married Colman's widow,
Benita Hume
.
Fame
[
edit
]
Colman has been mentioned in many novels, but he is specifically mentioned in
Ralph Ellison
's
Invisible Man
because of his charming, well-known voice. The main character of this novel says that he wishes he could have a voice like Colman's because it is charming, and relates the voice to that of a gentleman or a man from
Esquire
magazine.
[20]
Colman was indeed very well known for his voice.
Encyclopædia Britannica
says that Colman had a "resonant, mellifluous speaking voice with a unique, pleasing timbre".
[21]
Along with his charming voice, Colman had a very confident performing manner that helped make him a major star of sound films.
[22]
Radio and television
[
edit
]
As early as 1942, Colman joined forces with several other Hollywood luminaries to inaugurate international broadcasts by the
CBS
radio network over La Cadena de las Americas (The Network of the Americas) under the supervision of the
Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs
chaired by
Nelson Rockefeller
.
[23]
In the process, he contributed substantially to the implementation of President
Franklin Roosevelt
's
cultural diplomacy
initiatives throughout South America during World War II.
[24]
[25]
[26]
Colman's vocal talents contributed to National Broadcasting Company programming on
D-Day
, 6 June 1944. On that day, Colman read "Poem and Prayer for an Invading Army" written by
Edna St. Vincent Millay
for exclusive radio use by NBC.
[27]
[28]
Beginning in 1945, Colman made many guest appearances on
The Jack Benny Program
on radio, alongside his second wife, stage and screen actress Benita Hume, whom he married in 1938. Their comedy work as Benny's perpetually exasperated next-door neighbors led to their own
radio comedy
The Halls of Ivy
from 1950 to 1952, created by
Fibber McGee & Molly
mastermind
Don Quinn
, on which the Colmans played the literate, charming president of a middle American college and his former-actress wife. Listeners were surprised to discover that the episode of 24 January 1951, "The Goya Bequest" ? a story examining the bequest of a Goya painting that was suspected of being a fraud hyped by its late owner to avoid paying customs duties when bringing it to the United States ? was written by Colman himself, who poked fun at his accomplishment while taking a rare turn giving the evening's credits at the show's conclusion.
The Halls of Ivy
ran on
NBC
radio from 1950 to 1952, then moved to
CBS
television for the 1954?55 season.
[29]
Colman was also the host and occasional star of the syndicated anthology
Favorite Story
(1946?49).
[30]
Of note was his narration and portrayal of
Scrooge
in a 1948 adaptation of
A Christmas Carol
.
Death
[
edit
]
In 1957, Colman had surgery for a lung infection, and suffered from ill health afterwards.
[1]
He was hospitalized and died on 19 May 1958, aged 67, from acute
emphysema
in
Santa Barbara, California
, and was interred in the
Santa Barbara Cemetery
. He had a daughter, Juliet Benita (born 1944), with his second wife, Benita Hume.
[31]
Awards, honours and legacy
[
edit
]
Colman was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actor. At the
3rd Academy Awards
ceremony he received a single nomination for his work in two films;
Bulldog Drummond
(1929) and
Condemned
(1929). He was nominated again for
Random Harvest
(1942), before winning for
A Double Life
(1947), in which he played the role of Anthony John, an actor playing
Othello
who comes to identify with the character. He also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in 1947 for
A Double Life
. In 2002, Colman's Oscar statuette was sold at auction by
Christie's
for US$174,500.
[32]
Colman was a recipient of the
George Eastman Award
,
[33]
given by
George Eastman House
for distinguished contribution to the art of film.
Colman has two stars on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame
in Los Angeles, one for motion pictures at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard and one for television at 1623 Vine Street.
He is the subject of a biography written by his daughter Juliet Benita Colman in 1975:
Ronald Colman: A Very Private Person
.
[34]
The
Dublin
slang term "ronnie", referring to a
moustache
, derives from Colman's thin moustache.
[35]
[36]
Filmography
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Obituaries"
.
Variety
. 21 May 1958. p. 79
. Retrieved
23 January
2021
– via
Archive.org
.
- ^
a
b
Frank, Sam (1997).
Ronald Colman: A Bio-Bibliography
.
Greenwood Press
. p. 1;
ISBN
0-313-26433-3
- ^
a
b
Morley, Sheridan (2004).
"Colman, Ronald Charles (1891a€"1958), actor"
.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
doi
:
10.1093/ref:odnb/37304
.
(Subscription or
UK public library membership
required.)
- ^
Colman, Juliet Benita (1975).
Ronald Colman: A Very Private Person
. W.H Allen. p. 2;
ISBN
0-491-01785-5
- ^
a
b
"Shelley Winters." Britannica Book of the Year, 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 16 September 2013
- ^
Smith, R. Dixon (1991).
Ronald Colman, Gentleman of the Cinema
.
McFarland & Company
. pp. 2?3;
ISBN
0-7864-1212-7
- ^
a
b
"Famous London Scottish"
. The London Scottish Regimental Trust. Archived from
the original
on 11 February 2016.
- ^
"Medal card of Colman, Ronald C, Soldier Number: 2148, Rank: Private, Corps: 14th London Regiment"
.
The National Archives
. Retrieved
20 January
2016
.
- ^
Morley, Sheridan. (1983)
Tales from the Hollywood Raj: The British, the Movies and Tinseltown
. The Viking Press, p. 66.
- ^
Bates, Stephen (10 November 2011).
"Silver war badge recipients revealed online"
.
The Guardian
. Retrieved
18 August
2023
.
Another recipient was Ronald Coleman, the future British Hollywood actor who was severely wounded in the ankle during the first weeks of the war, leaving him with a limp that he tried to disguise during his film career.
- ^
Frank, Sam (1997).
Ronald Colman: A Bio-Bibliography
.
Greenwood Press
. p. 52;
ISBN
0-313-26433-3
- ^
"The Nightcap ? Broadway Play ? Original | IBDB"
.
- ^
"La Tendresse ? Broadway Play ? Original | IBDB"
.
- ^
Frank, Sam (1997).
Ronald Colman: A Bio-Bibliography
.
Greenwood Press
. p. 58;
ISBN
0-313-26433-3
- ^
Quirk, Lawrence J.,
The Films of Ronald Colman
, Secaucus, New Jersey, 1977.
- ^
Franklin, Joe,
Classics of the Silent Screen
, p. 148, 1959 The Citadel Press
- ^
Franklin, Joe.
Classics of the Silent Screen: A Pictorial Treasury
. New York: Bramhall House, 1959. Print
- ^
Zito, Stephen F., American Film Institute and the Library of Congress, Cinema Club 9 Program Notes, April, 1973 Post Newsweek Stations, Washington, DC
- ^
Morley, p. 65.
- ^
Ralph Ellison (1952).
The Invisible Man
. Random House.
- ^
"Ronald Colman | British-American actor | Britannica"
.
www.britannica.com
. 15 May 2023.
- ^
William K. Everson (1978).
American Silent Film
.
Oxford University Press
.
- ^
Time
? Radio: La Cadena, June 1, 1942
Ronald Colman, La Cadena de las Americas on Content.time.com
- ^
Roosevelt, Franklin D.,
"Executive Order 8840 Establishing the Office of Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs"
, July 30, 1941. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project,
University of California, Santa Barbara
- ^
In All His Glory: The Life and Times of William S. Paley and the Birth of Modern Broadcasting. Salley Bedell Smith. Random House Trade Publications, New York, USA, 2002, Chapter 18
ISBN
978-0-307-78671--5
William S. Paley and La Cadena de las Americas and Franklin Roosevelt on Books.google.com See Chapter 18
- ^
Time
? Radio: La Cadena, June 1, 1942
William S. Paley, La Cadena de las Americas on Content.time.com
- ^
Millay, Edna St. Vincent; National Broadcasting Company (1944).
Poem and prayer for an invading army
. New York: National Broadcasting Company.
OCLC
1105316
.
- ^
"Audio recording of "Poem and Prayer for an Invading Army" by Edna St. Vincent Millay, read by Ronald Colman"
.
Internet Archive
. 6 June 1944
. Retrieved
5 June
2019
.
- ^
Becker, Christine (1 October 2005).
"Televising Film Stardom in the 1950s"
.
Framework
.
[
dead link
]
- ^
Dunning, John
(1998).
On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio
(Revised ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 244.
ISBN
978-0-19-507678-3
. Retrieved
19 September
2019
.
- ^
"The Guardian 20 May 1958, page 3"
.
- ^
Dave Kehr,
"Objection Quashes Sale of Welles's 'Kane' Oscar",
The New York Times
(22 July 2003)
- ^
"Eastman House award recipients · George Eastman House"
. 15 April 2012. Archived from
the original
on 15 April 2012.
- ^
Colman, Juliet Benita (1975).
Ronald Colman, a Very Private Person: A Biography
. Morrow.
ISBN
9780688002749
.
julia benita coleman.
- ^
McArdle, Joseph (16 October 2007).
Irish Rogues and Rascals ? From Francis Shackleton to Charlie Haughey: The Hilarious Stories of Ireland's Most Notorious Chancers
. Gill & Macmillan Ltd.
ISBN
9780717168057
– via Google Books.
- ^
Munro, Michael (9 December 2007).
Chambers Pardon My English!: An Exploration of Slang and Informal Language
. Chambers.
ISBN
9780550102867
– via Google Books.
- ^
"Escape and Suspense!: Suspense ? August Heat"
. escape-suspense.com
. Retrieved
2 June
2017
.
- ^
"Escape and Suspense!: Suspense ? The Dunwich Horror"
. escape-suspense.com
. Retrieved
2 June
2017
.
- ^
"
'Horizon' Star"
.
Harrisburg Telegraph
. Harrisburg Telegraph. 23 November 1946. p. 19
. Retrieved
13 September
2015
– via
Newspapers.com
.
- ^
"Those Were the Days".
Nostalgia Digest
. Vol. 41, no. 3. Summer 2015. pp. 32?39.
- ^
Kirby, Walter (21 December 1952).
"Better Radio Programs for the Week"
.
The Decatur Daily Review
. The Decatur Daily Review. p. 44
. Retrieved
8 June
2015
– via
Newspapers.com
.
- ^
Kirby, Walter (31 May 1953).
"Better Radio Programs for the Week"
.
The Decatur Daily Review
. The Decatur Daily Review. p. 40
. Retrieved
30 June
2015
– via
Newspapers.com
.
Bibliography
[
edit
]
- Parker, John, editor,
Who's Who in the Theatre
, 10th edition revised, London, 1947, p. 437.
External links
[
edit
]
Awards for Ronald Colman
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1928?1950
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1951?1975
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1976?2000
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2001?present
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1
refused award that year
|
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1943?1975
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1976?2000
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2001?present
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International
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National
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Artists
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People
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Other
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