Robert Donat
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| Robert Donat | |||||||||||
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| Born | Friedrich Robert Donath March 18, 1905 Withington, Manchester, England |
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| Died | June 9, 1958 (aged 53) London, England |
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| Spouse(s) | Ella Annesley Voysey (1929-1946) Renée Asherson (1953-1958) |
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Friedrich Robert Donat (March 18, 1905 – June 9, 1958), was an English Academy Award-winning film and stage actor.
Donat was born in Withington, Manchester, England, of English, Polish and German descent. He made his first stage appearance in 1921 and his film debut in 1932 in Men of Tomorrow. His first great screen success came with The Private Life of Henry VIII, playing Thomas Culpepper. He had a successful screen image as an English gentleman who was neither haughty nor common. That made him something of a novelty in British films at the time, and he was likened by critics to Hollywood's Clark Gable and Gary Cooper. His most successful films included The Ghost Goes West (1935), Hitchcock's The 39 Steps (1935), The Citadel (1938), for which he received his first Oscar nomination, and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939). For the latter, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, beating out Clark Gable for Gone with the Wind, Laurence Olivier for Wuthering Heights and James Stewart for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. He was a major theatre star, noted for his performances in The Devil's Disciple (1938), Heartbreak House (1942), Much Ado About Nothing (1946), and especially as Thomas Becket in T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral at the Old Vic Theatre (1952).
However, he suffered from ill-health (chronic asthma) which shortened his career and limited him to twenty films. His final role was the mandarin Yang Cheng in The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958). He died of an asthma attack on June 9, 1958 at age 53 in London, England.
Donat was twice married, first to Ella Annesley Voysey (1929-1946), with whom he had three children, and subsequently to British actress Renée Asherson (1953-1958).
Robert Donat has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for motion pictures at 6420 Hollywood Blvd.
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Other notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1932 | Men of Tomorrow | Julian Angell | |
| That Night in London | Dick Warren | ||
| 1933 | Cash | Paul Martin | |
| The Private Life of Henry VIII | Thomas Culpeper | ||
| 1934 | The Count of Monte Cristo | Edmond Dantès, the eponymous Count | |
| 1935 | The 39 Steps | Richard Hannay | |
| 1936 | The Ghost Goes West | Murdoch Glourie/Donald Glourie | |
| 1937 | Knight Without Armour | Peter Ouronov | |
| 1938 | The Citadel | Andrew | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actor |
| 1939 | Goodbye, Mr. Chips | Mr. Chips | Academy Award for Best Actor |
| 1942 | The Young Mr. Pitt | William Pitt / The Earl of Chatham | |
| 1943 | The Adventures of Tartu | Captain Terence Stevenson, aka Jan Tartu | aka Sabotage Agent |
| The New Lot | Actor | uncredited | |
| 1945 | Perfect Strangers | Robert Wilson | |
| 1947 | Captain Boycott | Charles Stewart Parnell | |
| 1948 | The Winslow Boy | Sir Robert Morton | |
| 1950 | The Cure for Love | Sergeant Jack Hardacre | |
| 1951 | The Magic Box | William Friese-Greene, "the forgotten inventor of movies" | |
| 1955 | Lease of Life | Rev. William Thorne | Nominated - BAFTA Award |
| 1958 | The Inn of the Sixth Happiness | The Mandarin of Yang Cheng | Nominated - Golden Globe |
[edit] External links
- Robert Donat at the Internet Movie Database
- Robert Donat archive at the University of Bristol Theatre Collection, University of Bristol
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