James Donald

[Kathy]

Does anyone else have any memories of this lesser known but excellent actor?

In case some may know his face but not the name, here is a link to a page containing some pictures of him, on the British Cinema Greats site:



He was a very talented actor, being able to switch from comedy to drama with complete ease. Think what a change there is, to go from playing the inept Mr. Winkle in "The Pickwick Papers" (he was hilarious in the part) to playing the very serious role of S.B.O Ramsey in "The Great Escape". And of course, there is his role in "Bridge on the River Kwai" where he speaks the famous last lines; "Madness, madness".



Another role of his, quite differant from the three just mentioned, was in the Disney film "Third Man on the Mountain". In this flim Donald's character is a tough, capable (and rather cranky) Swiss mountain guide --- and he's very convincing in the part.



Perhaps there are others who share my appreciation of James Donald?

[David Challinor]

Kathy - I like this actor too...I remember his stiff upper lipped Englishman in a number of the films you mention, but most of all - for some reason - in his appearence in Quatermass and the Pit, which I saw when I was a kid.

One of my dreams is to write a book of mini biographies of film stars, along the lines of Barry Norman's Hollywood Greats, but of unsung Brits instead of Big USA Stars. James Donald would be one of them, as would Richard Wattis, Finlay Currie, Bill Travers, Laurence Naismith, Alistair Sim....I KNOW these stars from their many appearences, but don't know about their lives at all.

In the case of James Donald I do remember taking notice of the Telegraph obit when he died, and recall the writer who claimed the actor was as stiff-backed in life as the characters he played.

I hope we both learn more about him in future - toodle-pip

[Marky B]

James Donald was an ever dependable actor,not seeking fame,but was gladly of service to any movie.

Ta Ta

Marky B :thumbs:

[David Brent]

Originally posted by David Challinor@Feb 13 2005, 10:59 PM

One of my dreams is to write a book of mini biographies of film stars, along the lines of Barry Norman's Hollywood Greats, but of unsung Brits instead of Big USA Stars. James Donald would be one of them, as would Richard Wattis, Finlay Currie, Bill Travers, Laurence Naismith, Alistair Sim....I KNOW these stars from their many appearences, but don't know about their lives at all.

Dave,

That is just the type of book i have always wanted to find and read.

Imagine the many untold stories related to all those much loved but little known about actors.All their up's and downs,their triumphs and disaster's.

Mate, when you decide to write the book please put me at the top of your list for pre-order purchasers.



Cheers!



Dave.

[DAVID RAYNER]

He was also good in Lust for Life (1956) as Van Gogh's brother, Theo; as the English traitor Egbert in The Vikings (1958) and as Mr Murdstone in David Copperfield (1970).

[Kathy]

Originally posted by David Challinor@Feb 13 2005, 10:59 PM

One of my dreams is to write a book of mini biographies of film stars, along the lines of Barry Norman's Hollywood Greats, but of unsung Brits instead of Big USA Stars.

Yes, so much is already written on the big stars, it's too bad that no one ever thinks to write about the lesser known (but just as good) supporting actors.

[David Challinor]

I'd like to have a go...I've even got a title [instead of Hollywood Greats how about...] The BorehamWood Greats...

Anyone care to add to my list of actors I'll cover in my tome? I think 10 or 12 would do.

[Kathy]

Mervyn Johns ('Christmas Carol', 'My Learned Friend') and James Hayter, (who appeared with James Donald in 'Pickwick Papers') are two more that come to mind ----

[Steve Crook]

Originally posted by David Challinor@Feb 14 2005, 11:18 PM

I'd like to have a go...I've even got a title [instead of Hollywood Greats how about...] The BorehamWood Greats...

Anyone care to add to my list of actors I'll cover in my tome? I think 10 or 12 would do.

Roger Livesey, David Farrar, Eric Portman, Marius Goring, Esmond Knight, Leslie Banks, Miles Malleson, Finlay Currie

Kathleen Byron, Judith Furse, Ludmilla Tchérina, Pamela Brown, June Duprez, Valerie Hobson, Glynis Johns



A few of the names that spring to mind where there hasn't been much written about them. No biographies to my knowledge.



Oh what a coincidence, they were all in P&P films :smiling:



Esmond Knight did an autobiography but it only took us up to just after he was blinded while serving on HMS Prince of Wales. The last thing he saw clearly was HMS Hood being blown up by the Bismarck. But he went back to acting very successfully and one of his roles was as the Captain of the Prince of Wales in Sink the Bismarck!.



David Farrar also did an early autobiography. But that only took us up to just after he'd done Black Narcissus. He did a lot after that.



Valerie Hobson was the original "Stand by your man" after her husband, John Profumo, MP & Minister for War, was caught up in the scandal involving the call girls and the Russian diplomat. See Scandal (1989) for details if you're too young to remember it. She had already stopped acting when she married Profumo and they devoted the rest of their lives to various charities.



Steve

[MrT]

Any book featuring the unsung heroes of British films should include Charles Victor, one of the most dependable and versatile supporting actors of the 40s and 50s. My favourute roles of his include the razor slashing spiv threatening to carve up Will Hay in My Learned Friend, the miserable airman in The Way to the Stars, and a wonderful comic performance as the hen pecked husband of Marjorie Rhodes in There's always a Thursday, a lesser known film from 1957. This last role shows that Victor had a real gift for comedy in a style something akin to Alastair Sim, and its a pity that this side of his talents was not developed further at the time.



Anyone else got a favourite Charles Victor role?



Mike (MrT)

[David Challinor]

Johns is a favourite of mine...a widower, I seem to recall he famously re-married in old age when a resident of a home for retired actors.

[JD_Fan]

I read in a pressbook James Donald (Bridge on the River Kwai) was born in Canada. That surprised me as well, I always thought he was scottish (born in Aberdeen in 1917)!



Does anybody knows more?

[CaptainWaggett]

The obituary in the Times says Aberdeen though he was partly educated in Canada.

[JD_Fan]

The pressbook says he was born in Canada and educated in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Who knows?!

[Steve Crook]

The pressbook says he was born in Canada and educated in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Who knows?!

If there's a variation in the information, press books are usually the least reliable. They're about publicity, not facts



Steve

[CaptainWaggett]

For what it's worth, here's the obituary.





James Robert MacGeorge Donald, actor, died at his home in Wiltshire on August 3 aged 76. He was born in Aberdeen on May 18, 1917. JAMES DONALD, who rose to fame in 1943 when he created the role of Roland Maule in Noel Coward's Present Laughter, was a stage actor before anything else, although he is better remembered today for his film roles as military officers, like the doctor in David Lean's distinguished film of PoW life in Japanese-occupied Burma, The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). The last twenty years of his life were spent in an altogether different career, making wine in the heart of Wiltshire.



He was the fourth son of a Scottish Presbyterian minister, Dr George Donald, whose eloquent sermons and fine delivery made a strong impression on all who heard them, including young Jimmie. His mother died when he was 18 months old, and his stepmother, Adelaide Webster, who was a portrait painter with a regal, theatrical personality, became a powerful influence.



A sickly childhood in Galashiels was followed by schooling at Rossall and a brief stint at McGill University, in Montreal. The asthma that dogged most of his life necessitated his return to Scotland and a transfer to Edinburgh University. But the stage had already captured his heart. Instead of finishing his studies in moral philosophy he scandalised his family by taking to the boards, and appearing at the Edinburgh Lyceum as Thomas in The Admirable Crichton.



He then went to London to study under Michel St Denis at the London Theatre Studio, where he was a contemporary of Peter Ustinov. He first appeared on the London stage as the First Officer in Mikhail Bulgakov's drama of the Russian civil war based on his own novel, The White Guard, which was produced in an adaptation by Rodney Ackland in October 1938. It was an insignificant bit part which nevertheless drew the attention of the play's star, Marius Goring.



An enjoyable stint at the Old Vic followed in 1940. There he understudied John Gielgud in King Lear, toured with the company and went on to do a couple of West End productions before attracting the attention of Noel Coward who was looking for someone to play the comedy role in his new play, Present Laughter. Donald's huge success in the role of Roland Maule, one of the high points of wartime theatre in London, kept his memory alive during the next three years while he was in the Army decoding messages for the Intelligence Corps (crossword puzzles and chess were abiding passions).



A series of propaganda war films, including Noel Coward and David Lean's In Which We Serve (1942) and Carol Reed's star-studded classic The Way Ahead (1944), kept his face before the public. He returned to the stage with great success in 1946 as Smerdyov in Peter Brook's production of The Brothers Karamazov at the Lyric, Hammersmith. The energetic and exciting role of the assassin in Jean Cocteau's The Eagle Has Two Heads, followed in 1947; the performance was memorable for a backward fall down a flight of steps. The fact that Donald could perform the fall, night after night, without a bruise was a mark of his remarkable stage technique.



A series of critically acclaimed roles followed, including Valentine in You Never Can Tell at Wyndham's, The Heiress (with Peggy Ashcroft and Ralph Richardson) and, in 1950, the lead in Laurence Olivier's production of Captain Carvallo at the old St James's. Debatably his finest stage performance, and one that roused Harold Hobson, The Sunday Times theatre critic, to describe him as one of Britain's finest actors, was his portrayal in 1954 of the tragic adventurer, Richard Gettner, opposite Edith Evans, in the beautiful Peter Brook production of Christopher Fry's The Dark is Light Enough.



Meanwhile Hollywood was beckoning. Donald had been placed under a seven-year contract by MGM in 1943 and made a series of films at Pinewood and Denham. But it was not until 1956 that he made an international impact with his portrayal of Theo, Van Gogh's long-suffering brother, in Vincente Minnelli's richly coloured, Lust for Life; Kirk Douglas played Gogh and Anthony Quinn was Gauguin.



Enormous success followed with the troublesome and difficult film, The Bridge on the River Kwai, the first of David Lean's big budget spectacles. The part of the strained prison camp doctor, Major Clipton, who tries to mediate between the insanely self-righteous Japanese and British military commanders (played by Sessue Hayakawa and Alec Guinness) was considered one of his finest film performances.



American television audiences came to know him as a seasoned and accomplished actor in a series of TV "specials" (The Tale of Two Cities, The Power and the Glory, etc). After an appearance in Kirk Douglas's The Vikings (1958) he returned to the London stage in The Doctor's Dilemma and The Wings of a Dove. The Great Escape (1963), in which he played a stiff, limping air force officer, was followed by Brian Forbes's King Rat (1965), another PoW film, and Cast A Giant Shadow (1966), about the Israeli independence movement.



Although more film credits followed, the theatre remained his first love. In 1969 he returned to the stage, appearing in the Canadian National Theatre production of The School for Scandal. But declining health forced him to take early retirement and devote the last but satisfying years of his life to growing grapes and making wine.



He is survived by his wife Ann, and a stepson.

[Euryale]

I read in a pressbook James Donald (Bridge on the River Kwai) was born in Canada. That surprised me as well, I always thought he was scottish (born in Aberdeen in 1917)!



Does anybody knows more?

All the film reference books I've looked at suggest that he was indeed born in Aberdeen. And this is from his obituary in the New York Times, dated 16th August, 1993:



'Mr. Donald was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, the son of a Presbyterian minister, and studied at McGill and Edinburgh universities and the London Theater Studio.'





Euryale.

[JD_Fan]

Thanks for posting the obituary.

Many I didn`t know about him!

[EHV_Emmetts]

Always seemed to play a military officer - notably Group Captain Ramsey "The SBO" in The Great Escape.