A journalist before embarking on a career in acting, David Farrar took
to the stage in 1932, then to the films in 1937. He moved effortlessly
from the second-feature confines of George King’s Sexton Blake
and the Hooded Terror (1938) to work at Ealing Studios on the war-related
films Went the Day
Well (1942), the semi-documentary For
Those in Peril (1944) and Frieda
(1947). Farrar then came to work on a quartet of films with the esteemed
writing-directing team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, including
the district agent in Black
Narcissus (1947), a bomb disposal expert in The
Small Back Room (1949), the swaggering squire of Gone
to Earth (1950) and The
Wild Heart (1950).
Riding high on critical and commercial acclaim, he relocated to Hollywood
in 1951 under contract to Universal but the move was to prove ill-judged.
He was generally cast in two-dimensional villainous roles including
The Golden Horde (1951), The Black Shield of Falworth (1954) and Pearl
of the South Pacific (1955). He retired from acting due to the lacklustre
roles on offer shortly after appearing in Beat Girl (1959). Farrar eventually
moved to South Africa.
