Educated at Stonyhurst College and a Shakespeare aficionado from a
young age, imposing British character actor Francis Loftus Sullivan
made his Old Vic debut in 1921 in a production of Richard III. His film
career began in 1932 and ended in 1955, the year before his death; he
is perhaps best known for his Dickensian portrayals of Mr. Jaggers in
both the 1934 and 1946 versions of Great
Expectations, and Bumble in David
Lean's Oliver
Twist (1948). He was frequently cast as a menacing figure in numerous
b&w thrillers including Non-Stop
New York (1937) and Pimpernel
Smith (1941). After Night and the City (1950), Sullivan moved to
Hollywood - playing in such highly coloured escapism as Caribbean (1952),
Plunder of the Sun (1953) and Drums of Tahiti (1954). Eventually he
became a naturalized U.S. citizen. A keen criminologist in later life,
he became a good friend of author Agatha Christie.
