Ronald Colman

Before David Niven and Cary Grant there was Ronald Colman, the personification of the urbane English gent in 30s Hollywood. Born to a merchant father, he took up acting when he realised that book-keeping in his father's business wasn't for him. War service (WW1) was cut short by ill health, and a brief career in London theatre and film curtailed by poverty, so Colman took the boat to New York and made his film debut in 1920's Handcuffs or Kisses?. 1923 catapulted him into Hollywood, and he found himself opposite Lillian Gish, the leading actress of the day, in The White Sister. From the mid-20s to the mid-30s he added class to a host of slient costume epics, and was able to make a smooth transition into 'talkies', thanks to his precise vocal control and popular appearance in a contemporary adventure flick, Bulldog Drummond (1929). Colman fell out with Goldwyn and went on to make classics like A Tale Of Two Cities and The Prisoner Of Zenda. In 1947, he won an Academy Award for his performance in A Double Life as a disturbed actor who becomes so swept up in his roles that he commits murder. Colman died in 1957.