Known For
Acting
Born
Feb 08, 1891
Died
May 19, 1958
Place of Birth
Richmond, Surrey, England, UK
Credits
61 titles
Ronald Colman
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 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.
Known For
Filmography
Goldwyn: The Man and His Movies
Self (archive footage)
The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind
Self (archive footage)
That's Entertainment, Part II
(archive footage)
The Story of Mankind
The Spirit of Man
Around the World in 80 Days
Railway Official
The Halls of Ivy
General Electric Theater
Graham
Four Star Playhouse
Caller
The Jack Benny Program
Ronald Colman
Champagne for Caesar
Beauregard Bottomley
The Art Director
Self - from 'Late George Apley' (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Ed Sullivan Show
Self
A Double Life
Anthony John
The Late George Apley
George Apley
Kismet
Hafiz
Random Harvest
Charles Rainier
The Talk of the Town
Michael Lightcap
My Life with Caroline
Anthony Mason
Lucky Partners
David Grant
The Light That Failed
Dick Heldar
If I Were King
François Villon
The Prisoner of Zenda
Major Rudolf Rassendyll / The Prisoner of Zenda
Lost Horizon
Robert " Bob " Conway
Under Two Flags
Sgt. Victor
A Tale of Two Cities
Sydney Carton
The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo
Paul Gaillard
Clive of India
Robert Clive
Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back
Captain Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond
The Masquerader
Sir John Chilcote / John Loder
Cynara
James Warlock
Arrowsmith
Dr. Martin Arrowsmith
The Unholy Garden
Barrington Hunt
Governor C.C. Young Hails Greater Talkie Season
The Devil to Pay!
Willie Hale
Terra Melophon Magazin Nr. 1
Raffles
A.J. Raffles
Condemned!
Michel
Bulldog Drummond
Captain Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond
The Rescue
Tom Lingard
Two Lovers
Mark van Rycke
The Magic Flame
Tito the Clown / The Count
The Night of Love
Montero
The Winning of Barbara Worth
Willard Holmes
Beau Geste
Michael 'Beau' Geste
Kiki
Victor Renal
Lady Windermere's Fan
Lord Darlington
Stella Dallas
Stephen Dallas
The Dark Angel
Captain Alan Trent
Her Sister from Paris
Joseph
A Thief in Paradise
Maurice Blake