Ronald Colman

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Ronald Charles Colman (born February 9, 1891 in Richmond , London , † May 19, 1958 in Santa Barbara , California ) was a British actor . He played the role of an English gentleman in over 100 Hollywood films, including several classics, often archetypally . He was nominated four times for an Oscar for Best Actor and won the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award in 1948 for his performance in A Double Life .

Family and youth

Ronald Charles Colman was the son of Marjory (nee Read Fraser) and Charles Colman. He had four siblings, an older brother, a younger and two older sisters. His father was a successful silk merchant . Up to the age of 16 he attended boarding school in Littlehampton , where he was already actively involved in a school theater group. The boarding school education should enable him to study engineering at the University of Cambridge . Due to financial reasons, this plan could not be realized due to the early death of his father. To help support the family, he worked as an accountant for the British Steamship Company in the City of London from 1907 and performed in local amateur theaters in the evenings and on weekends .

1909 began his military service as a soldier with the London Scottish Regiment. Colman's unit was part of the first regiment of the Territorial Force sent to the Western Front in France after the outbreak of World War I in September 1914 . During the Battle of Ypres he suffered on 31 October 1914. Mesen (Belgium) by a shrapnel a serious ankle injury. As a result, Colman received his discharge from the British Army in early 1915 . The injury caused him to limp persistently and tried to hide this handicap throughout his subsequent acting career.

Back in London, he initially worked in the foreign service . On June 19, 1916, Colman took a small role in a play at the London Coliseum and took this opportunity to concentrate exclusively on the art of acting. From December 1916 he appeared in London at the Playhouse Theater, from March 1917 at the Royal Court Theater and from February 1918 at the Ambassadors Theater. He was sponsored by the later film diva Gladys Cooper , who was co-manager at the Playhouse Theater at the time. She recognized the skills of the handsome but inexperienced young actor and provided him with various roles. Parallel to his theater appearances, Colman received his first small engagements in short films on numerous occasions between 1917 and 1919 . Among other things, he worked with director Cecil Hepworth , a pioneer of British silent film . He played his first major role in the film The Live Wire (1917) , which was never published, which is why The Toilers (1919) is often listed as his feature film debut in biographies about Ronald Colman .

Hollywood career

In 1920 Ronald Colman emigrated to America. When he arrived in Ellis Island , according to his biographers, his only asset was $ 25, his good looks, his confident demeanor and his perfect British accent . First he played small supporting roles in New York City at various theaters and went on tour with Robert Warwick in the play The Dauntless Three and with Fay Bainter in the comedy East is West . A first major fame on Broadway achieved Colman in January 1921 in the role of the temple priest in William Archers The Green Goddess . In the same year he played alongside George Arliss in The Nightcap .

His breakthrough came in September 1922 on the side of Ruth Chatterton and Henry Miller as Alain Sergyll, an important supporting role in Lee Shubert's La Tendresse . At one of these performances the director Henry King sat in the audience, who immediately engaged him next to Lillian Gish for the lead role in the film The White Sister (OT: The White Sister ). The film, shot in Italy, premiered on September 3, 1923 in the USA and received very good reviews worldwide . With that, Colman's screen career began in Hollywood .

After the immense success of The White Sister , Samuel Goldwyn signed him and built him up to a world star alongside the Hungarian actress Vilma Bánky . In the course of the merger of the Goldwyn Picture Corporation with the Metro Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer Pictures , Ronald Colman received a studio contract in 1924 that tied him to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) for ten years . By the time the talkies were introduced , MGM established Ronald Colman and Vilma Bánky as one of the most popular screen dream couples in silent film. Among the classics this time both romance and adventure films with Colman as The Dark Angel (1925), The sacrifice of Stella Dallas (Stella Dallas) (1925), Beau Geste (1926) and The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926).

Many careers of silent film actors ended with the switch to sound film. Some former stars had unpleasant voices, lisped, nasalized or spoke the languages ​​of the countries in which they were filming, poorly or poorly. Others, and that was one of the most fatal ones, could not remember the lyrics. MGM canceled the contract with Vilma Bánky, among other things, because, in contrast to the stage-tested Ronald Colman, she was overwhelmed with the demands of talking films. Their pronunciation has been described by one critic as "a strange mix of Budapest and Chicago". On the other hand, Colman experienced an increase in popularity through the sound film. Critics described his pronunciation as “clear”, “calm”, “unmistakable”, “natural”, “enchanting”, “extraordinarily beautiful”, “poetic”, “aristocratic”, “finely honed”, “cultivated”, “very British” ". In the Encyclopædia Britannica it is noted:

"His elegant accent and elegant demeanor gave the characters he played gracefully yet heroically an expression that stood in contrast to the rough, action- oriented men who grew up in America."

In an unprecedented career that successfully spanned the realms of stage, screen, radio and later television, Ronald Colman starred in romances , comedies , dramas , fantasy and adventure films . According to many critics, he remained in his depictions, in which he often embodied sophisticated, thoughtful characters, the epitome of kindness, sensitivity, serenity and complete authenticity. Colman received his first two Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in 1930 at the 3rd Annual Academy Awards for his performances in Escape from Devil's Island (1929) and Bulldog Drummond (1929). These nominations were followed by five more: Arrowsmith (1931), Escape from Paris (1935), Lost Horizon (1937), Witness for the Prosecution (1942) and Years Found (1942). He won an Oscar for best actor in 1948 and the Golden Globe Award for his role in the film A Double Life .

Coleman was the first film star to decide in 1934, after his long-term studio contract with MGM had expired, to only enter into short-term agreements for a limited number of films with various studios. This so-called free-lancing enabled him not only to negotiate higher fees, but often even to negotiate a share of the turnover in the box office results. As a rule, additional say in the selection of the scripts, the director and the co-stars were part of these agreements. For example, in 1936 he received a fee of $ 162,500 for around 100 days of shooting for the lead role in Lost Horizon from Columbia Pictures , which corresponds to the same purchasing power of $ 2,902,909 in 2018. Nonetheless, Colman strictly refused to accept a role in the prosecution in 1942 , as he profoundly despised the choleric and ruthless Columbia studio boss Harry Cohn after the filming of Lost Horizon . Only the quality of the script and the contractual assurance of the director George Stevens that under no circumstances would he have direct contact with Cohn finally convinced him. On that basis, he negotiated a fee of $ 106,250 with Columbia Pictures for his 45 days of filming as a witness for the prosecution .

He devoted much of his later career to radio broadcasts and, from 1954, television films. In his first marriage (1920-1934) he was in a relationship with the actress Thelma Raye (* 1890; † 1966). In 1938 Colman married the British actress Benita Hume (* 1906, † 1967), with whom he lived until his death. His only child, Juliet Benita Colman, was born in 1944 from this marriage. She published an extensive biography about her father in 1975 with William Morrow & Company . As a charismatic and photogenic artist, Ronald Colman has been voted the most beautiful actor in Hollywood several times. Of marriage, he said, "A man usually falls in love with a woman who asks the kind of questions he can answer."

Ronald Colman was an avowed pacifist , was passionate about sports, was widely read, and owned one of the largest private libraries in Hollywood. He lived for the last few years at the San Ysidro Ranch , which he owned since the early 1930s. On the idyllic and huge site in the mountains of Montecito , he and his friend, Berkeley professor Alvin C. Weingand, ran a luxury resort , among other things . Famous regular guests over the years have also included: Winston Churchill , John Galsworthy , Somerset Maugham , Sinclair Lewis , Audrey Hepburn , Lucille Ball , Bing Crosby and Groucho Marx . Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier married on the ranch in 1940 ; In 1953, Jacqueline and John F. Kennedy spent their honeymoon here.

Colman worked until the end of his life. He died in 1958 of complications from a lung disease. His grave is in the Santa Barbara Cemetery. He received a film star and a second star for his television work at the opening of the Hollywood Walk of Fame .

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Commons : Ronald Colman  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

literature

  • Juliet Benita Colman: Ronald Colman, a very private person. A biography. William Morrow, 1975.
  • R. Dixon Smith: Ronald Colman. Gentleman of the Cinema. A Biography and Filmography. McFarland Publishing, 1991.
  • Sam Frank: Ronald Colman. A bio-bibliography. Greenwood Press, 1997.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ronald Colman mourned In: Los Angeles Times, May 20, 1958, accessed July 23, 2018
  2. ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica: Ronald Colman In: www.bridica.com, accessed July 26, 2018
  3. ↑ Internet Movie Database: Awards Ronald Colman In: www.imdb.com, accessed July 26, 2018
  4. ↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Colman, Ronald Charles In: oxforddnb.com, accessed July 26, 2018
  5. ^ The Librarian of Congress: Ronald Colman - Gentleman oft the cinema In: ronaldcolman.com, accessed July 26, 2018
  6. ↑ Chris Whiteley, Hollywood's Golden Age: Ronald Colman In: hollywoodsgoldenage.com, accessed August 10, 2018
  7. ↑ The Silent Film Internet Database: Ronald Colman In: silenthollywood.com, accessed August 10, 2018
  8. ↑ Chris Whiteley, Hollywood's Golden Age: Ronald Colman In: hollywoodsgoldenage.com, accessed August 10, 2018
  9. ↑ Richard Hough: One Boy's War. Pen and Sword, 2007, p. 28.
  10. ↑ Eddie Garrett: I Saw Stars in the 40's and 50's. Trafford Publishing, 2005, p. 56.
  11. ↑ Los Angeles Times, May 20, 1958: Ronald Colman In: latimes.com, accessed August 10, 2018
  12. ↑ Internet Movie Database: Ronald Colman Biography In: imdb.com, accessed August 10, 2018
  13. ^ R. Dixon Smith: Ronald Colman. Gentleman of the Cinema. A Biography and Filmography. McFarland, 2001, p. 59 f.
  14. ↑ Lawrence J. Quirk: The Films of Ronald Colman. Citadel Press, 1979, pp. 77 f.
  15. ↑ Internet Movie Database: Ronald Colman Biography In: imdb.com, accessed August 10, 2018
  16. ↑ Michael Zmuda: The Five Sedgwicks. Pioneer Entertainers of Vaudeville, Film and Television. McFarland, 2015, p. 148.
  17. ^ Joe Franklin: Classics of the Silent Screen. The Citadel Press, 1959, p. 148.
  18. ↑ Donald Crafton: The Talkies. American Cinema's Transition to Sound, 1926-1931. University of California Press, 1999, p. 461.
  19. ^ Encyclopaedia Britannica: Ronald Colman In: britannica.com, accessed August 12, 2018
  20. ^ R. Dixon Smith: Ronald Colman. Gentleman of the Cinema. A Biography and Filmography. McFarland, 2001, p. 3 f.
  21. ↑ Internet Movie Database: Ronald Colman (Biography) In: imdb.com, accessed July 23, 2018
  22. ↑ Lawrence J. Quirk: The Films of Ronald Colman. Secaucus Press, 1977, p. 23 f.
  23. ↑ Internet Movie Database: Ronald Colman Biography (Section: Salary) In: imdb.com, accessed August 12, 2018
  24. ↑ Inflation calculator dollar 1935 to dollar 2018 In: dollartimes.com, accessed on August 12, 2018
  25. ↑ Jay Robert Nash, Stanley Ralph Ross: The Motion Picture Guide. Vol. 8 to 10. Cinebooks, 1987, p. 3270.
  26. ^ Marilyn Ann Moss: Giant. George Stevens, a Life on Film. University of Wisconsin Press, 2004, p. 108.
  27. ^ Bernard F. Dick: The Merchant Prince of Poverty Row. Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures. University Press of Kentucky, 2009, p. 120.
  28. ^ R. Dixon Smith: Ronald Colman. Gentleman of the Cinema. A Biography and Filmography. McFarland, 2001, p. 103 f.
  29. ↑ Internet Movie Database: Thelma Raye Biography In: imdb.com, accessed August 13, 2018
  30. ↑ Juliet Benita Colman: Ronald Colman, a very private person. A biography. William Morrow, 1975.
  31. ^ R. Dixon Smith: Ronald Colman. Gentleman of the Cinema. A Biography and Filmography. McFarland, 2001, p. 103 f.
  32. ↑ Internet Movie Database: Ronald Colman (Biography) In: imdb.com, accessed August 13, 2018
  33. ↑ John Russel Taylor: Strangers in Paradise. Emigrants in Hollywood 1933–1950. Siedler, 1984, p. 127.
  34. ↑ [1] In: sanysidroranch.com, accessed on August 13, 2018
  35. ↑ Ronald Colman mourned In: Los Angeles Times, May 20, 1958, accessed July 23, 2018
  36. ↑ History of the Walk of Fame In: walkoffame.com, accessed July 23, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Colman, Ronald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Colman, Ronald Charles (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British actor
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Richmond , London
DATE OF DEATH May 19, 1958
Place of death Santa Barbara , California