Kenneth More
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Kenneth More | |
|---|---|
 More in the trailer of Sink the Bismarck! |
|
| Born | Kenneth Gilbert More 20 September 1914 Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Died | 12 July 1982 (aged 67) London, England |
| Spouse(s) | Beryl Johnstone Mabel Barkby Angela Douglas |
Kenneth Gilbert More CBE (20 September 1914 – 12 July 1982) was an English cinema, television and theatre actor.
Contents |
[edit] Early life
He was born in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the only son of Charles Gilbert More, a Royal Naval Air Service pilot, and Edith Winifred Watkins, the daughter of a Cardiff solicitor. He was educated at Victoria College, Jersey.
When More was 17, his father died and he applied to join the RAF, but was rejected for lack of educational qualifications. He went to Canada, intending to work as a fur trapper but was sent back for lacking immigration papers.
[edit] Acting career
On his return, a family friend, Vivian Van Damm, took him on as assistant manager at the Windmill Theatre, where his job included spotting audience members misbehaving or using opera glasses to look at the nude players during its Revudeville variety shows.[1] He was soon promoted to playing straight man in the Revudeville comedy routines. This led to regular work in repertory, including Newcastle and Wolverhampton, until World War II. He served as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, seeing active service aboard the cruiser HMS Aurora and the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, returning to acting in 1946. After various roles in the West End, he attracted particular attention through his performance as Freddie in Terence Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea.
In the 1950s he entered into a contract with the Rank Organisation, which led to a successful career in starring roles for a decade. He enjoyed great success in films of the 1950s after winning a BAFTA as best newcomer for Doctor in the House in 1954. He played the lead role in the seminal Titanic movie 'A Night to Remember' in 1958. He specialised in likable, unflappable English heroes ("an air of hectoring confidence ... heroic in a cocky big-brotherly way")[2], a persona that could in some roles show darker aspects, as with the controlling Crighton in The Admirable Crichton and the brash Ambrose Claverhouse in Genevieve. In 1959, Rank's John Davis gave permission for More to work outside his contract to appear in The Guns of Navarone. More, however, made the mistake of heckling and swearing at Davis at a BAFTA dinner at the Dorchester, losing both the role (which went to David Niven) and his contract with Rank.[1]
He later appeared in a number of all-star war films, among them Sink the Bismarck!, (1960), The Longest Day (1962), Battle of Britain (1969), and Oh! What a Lovely War (1969).
His film parts got smaller in the 1960s, but his popularity recovered through West End stage performances and television roles, especially following his success in The Forsyte Saga, and as the title character in ATV's 1974 Father Brown. He is also known for his role as the Ghost of Christmas Present in 1970's Scrooge.
[edit] Personal life
More was married three times. His first marriage in 1939 to actress Beryl Johnstone (one daughter, Susan, born 1941) ended in divorce in 1946. He married Mabel Edith "Bill" Barkby in 1952 (one daughter, Sarah, born 1954) but left her in 1968 for Angela Douglas, an actress 26 years his junior, causing considerable estrangement from friends and family. He was married to Douglas (whom he nicknamed "Shrimp")[1] from March 17, 1968 until his death.
Kenneth More published two autobiographies, Happy Go Lucky in 1959 and More or Less in 1978.
He died in London from Parkinson's disease on 12 July 1982, aged 67. The Kenneth More Theatre, named in his honour, is in Ilford, Essex.
[edit] Filmography
|
|
[edit] References
- Sheridan Morley, "More, Kenneth Gilbert (1914–1982)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 12 Sept 2007
- ^ a b c More or Less, Kenneth More, Hodder and Stoughton, 1978, ISBN 034022603
- ^ Shepperton Babylon, The Lost Worlds of British Cinema, Matthew Sweet, Faber & Faber, 2005, ISBN 0571212972
[edit] External links
Kenneth More Theatre - http://www.kenneth-more-theatre.co.uk/
