Robert Donat
Encyclopedia
Robert Donat was an English
film and stage
actor. He is best-known for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock
's The 39 Steps
and Goodbye, Mr. Chips
for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor
.
, Manchester
, England, to Ernst Emil Donat and his wife Rose Alice (née Green) who were married at Withington
, St Paul, in 1895. He was of English
, Polish, German
and French descent and was educated at Manchester’s Central High School for Boys.
Donat had a brother, John Donat, who was a trapper in Canada and later moved to Shelton, Connecticut
. John Donat's children were Jean, Jay, and Peter. He was the owner of Lake George Camp for Girls in Gull Bay, New York
, which catered to old New York families.
's company at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Birmingham, playing Lucius in Julius Caesar
. His real break came in 1924 when he joined the company of Shakespearean actor Sir Frank Benson, where he stayed for four years. Donat made his film debut in 1932 in Men of Tomorrow. His first great screen success came with The Private Life of Henry VIII
, playing Thomas Culpeper
.
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 Best Actor Oscar
nomination, and Goodbye, Mr. Chips
(1939). The latter saw him win the Academy Award for Best Actor
, over Clark Gable for Gone with the Wind
, Laurence Olivier
for Wuthering Heights
, James Stewart
for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
and Mickey Rooney
for Babes in Arms
. He was a major theatre star, noted for his performances on the British stage in Shaw
's The Devil's Disciple
(1938) and 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).
Donat lobbied hard to be cast in two film roles, neither of which he gained. He wanted to play the Chorus in Olivier's Henry V
, but the role went to Leslie Banks
, and he longed desperately to be cast against type as Bill Sikes
in David Lean
's Oliver Twist
, but Lean thought him wrong for the part and cast Robert Newton
instead.
According to Judy Garland
in an interview, although she first sang "You Made Me Love You" for Clark Gable
, she was disappointed because she really had wanted to sing it for her idol Donat, to whom she wrote a fan letter after seeing The Count of Monte Cristo
(1934).
which affected his career and limited him to appearing in only twenty films. Author David Shipman speculates that Donat's asthma may have been psychosomatic: "His tragedy was that the promise of his early years was never fulfilled and that he was haunted by agonies of doubt and disappointment (which probably were the cause of his chronic asthma)"; however, this has never been substantiated. Donat's final role was the mandarin
Yang Cheng in The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
(1958). His last spoken words in this film were prophetic, "We shall not see each other again. I think. Farewell." He died on 9 June 1958 aged 53 in London
. His biographer Kenneth Barrow writes on the cause of his death: "Perhaps the asthma had weakened him but, in fact, it was discovered he had a brain tumour the size of a duck egg and cerebral thrombosis was certified as the primary cause of death."
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). His nephew is the actor Peter Donat
.
Robert Donat has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
for motion pictures at 6420 Hollywood Blvd.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
film and stage
Stage (theatre)
In theatre or performance arts, the stage is a designated space for the performance productions. The stage serves as a space for actors or performers and a focal point for the members of the audience...
actor. He is best-known for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
's The 39 Steps
The 39 Steps (1935 film)
The 39 Steps is a British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on the adventure novel The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan. The film stars Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll....
and Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)
Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 British film based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, and Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West and Eric...
for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
.
Early life
Donat was born Friedrich Robert Donat in WithingtonWithington
Withington is a suburban area of the City of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies south of Manchester city centre, about south of Fallowfield, north-east of Didsbury, and east of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, near the centre-to-south edges of the Greater Manchester Urban Area; in the...
, Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, England, to Ernst Emil Donat and his wife Rose Alice (née Green) who were married at Withington
Withington
Withington is a suburban area of the City of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies south of Manchester city centre, about south of Fallowfield, north-east of Didsbury, and east of Chorlton-cum-Hardy, near the centre-to-south edges of the Greater Manchester Urban Area; in the...
, St Paul, in 1895. He was of English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
, Polish, German
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
and French descent and was educated at Manchester’s Central High School for Boys.
Donat had a brother, John Donat, who was a trapper in Canada and later moved to Shelton, Connecticut
Shelton, Connecticut
Shelton is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 39,559 at the 2010 census.-Origins:Shelton was settled by the English as part of the town of Stratford, Connecticut, in 1639...
. John Donat's children were Jean, Jay, and Peter. He was the owner of Lake George Camp for Girls in Gull Bay, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, which catered to old New York families.
Career
He made his first stage appearance in 1921, at the age of 16, with Henry BayntonHenry Baynton
Henry Baynton was a British Shakespearean actor and actor-manager of the early twentieth century....
's company at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Birmingham, playing Lucius in Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar (play)
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, also known simply as Julius Caesar, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1599. It portrays the 44 BC conspiracy against...
. His real break came in 1924 when he joined the company of Shakespearean actor Sir Frank Benson, where he stayed for four years. Donat made his film debut in 1932 in Men of Tomorrow. His first great screen success came with The Private Life of Henry VIII
The Private Life of Henry VIII
The Private Life of Henry VIII is a 1933 film about Henry VIII, King of England. It was written by Lajos Biró and Arthur Wimperis, and directed by Sir Alexander Korda.Charles Laughton won the 1933 Academy Award as Best Actor for his performance as Henry...
, playing Thomas Culpeper
Thomas Culpeper
Sir Thomas Culpeper was a courtier of Henry VIII and the lover of Henry's fifth queen, Catherine Howard. He was born to Alexander Culpeper of Bedgebury, to the south of Maidstone in Kent, and his second wife, Constance Harper. He was the middle child and his older brother, also named Thomas, was a...
.
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
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
and Gary Cooper
Gary Cooper
Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
. His most successful films included The Ghost Goes West
The Ghost Goes West
The Ghost Goes West is a British romantic comedy/fantasy film starring Robert Donat, Jean Parker, and Eugene Pallette, and directed by René Clair, his first English-language film...
(1935), Hitchcock's
Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, KBE was a British film director and producer. He pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres. After a successful career in British cinema in both silent films and early talkies, Hitchcock moved to Hollywood...
The 39 Steps
The 39 Steps (1935 film)
The 39 Steps is a British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, loosely based on the adventure novel The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan. The film stars Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll....
(1935), The Citadel
The Citadel (film)
The Citadel is a 1938 film based on the novel of the same name by A. J. Cronin, first published in 1937. The film was directed by King Vidor and produced by Victor Saville.-Plot:...
(1938), for which he received his first Best Actor Oscar
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
nomination, and Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film)
Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 British film based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, and Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West and Eric...
(1939). The latter saw him win the Academy Award for Best Actor
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
, over Clark Gable for Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind (film)
Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...
, Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
for Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights (1939 film)
Wuthering Heights is a 1939 American black-and-white film directed by William Wyler and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. It is based on the novel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The film depicts only sixteen of the novel's thirty-four chapters, eliminating the second generation of characters. The...
, James Stewart
James Stewart
James Stewart was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart may also refer to:-Noblemen:*James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland*James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn James Stewart (1908–1997) was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart...
for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American drama film starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart about one man's effect on American politics. It was directed by Frank Capra and written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story. Mr...
and Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney is an American film actor and entertainer whose film, television, and stage appearances span nearly his entire lifetime. He has won multiple awards, including an Honorary Academy Award, a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award...
for Babes in Arms
Babes in Arms (film)
Babes in Arms is the 1939 film version of the 1937 Broadway musical of the same name. The film version stars Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, Charles Winninger, Guy Kibbee, June Preisser, Grace Hayes and Betty Jaynes.-Production:...
. He was a major theatre star, noted for his performances on the British stage in Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
's The Devil's Disciple
The Devil's Disciple
The Devil's Disciple is an 1897 play written by Irish dramatist, George Bernard Shaw. The play is Shaw's eighth, and after Richard Mansfield's original 1897 American production it was his first financial success, which helped to affirm his career as a playwright...
(1938) and Heartbreak House
Heartbreak House
Heartbreak House is a play written by George Bernard Shaw, first published in 1919 and first played at the Garrick Theatre in 1920. According to A. C. Ward, the work argues that "cultured, leisured Europe" was drifting toward destruction, and that "Those in a position to guide Europe to safety...
(1942), Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....
(1946), and especially as Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...
in T. S. Eliot
T. S. Eliot
Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...
's Murder in the Cathedral
Murder in the Cathedral
Murder in the Cathedral is a verse drama by T. S. Eliot that portrays the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170, first performed in 1935...
at the Old Vic Theatre (1952).
Donat lobbied hard to be cast in two film roles, neither of which he gained. He wanted to play the Chorus in Olivier's Henry V
Henry V (1944 film)
Henry V is a 1944 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name. The on-screen title is The Cronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France . It stars Laurence Olivier, who also directed. The play was adapted for the screen by Olivier, Dallas...
, but the role went to Leslie Banks
Leslie Banks
Leslie Banks, CBE was an English theatre and cinema actor, director and producer, now best remembered playing gruff, menacing characters in black and white movies of the 1930s and 1940s.-Early life:...
, and he longed desperately to be cast against type as Bill Sikes
Bill Sikes
William "Bill" Sikes is a fictional character in the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens.He is one of Dickens's most vicious characters and a very strong force in the novel when it comes to having control over somebody or harming others. He is portrayed as a rough and barbaric man. He is a career...
in David Lean
David Lean
Sir David Lean CBE was an English film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best remembered for big-screen epics such as The Bridge on the River Kwai , Lawrence of Arabia ,...
's Oliver Twist
Oliver Twist (1948 film)
Oliver Twist is the second of David Lean's two film adaptations of Charles Dickens novels. Following the success of his 1946 version of Great Expectations, Lean re-assembled much of the same team for his adaptation of Dicken's 1838 novel, including producers Ronald Neame and Anthony...
, but Lean thought him wrong for the part and cast Robert Newton
Robert Newton
Robert Newton was an English stage and film actor. Along with Errol Flynn, Newton was one of the most popular actors among the male juvenile audience of the 1940s and early 1950s, especially with British boys...
instead.
According to Judy Garland
Judy Garland
Judy Garland was an American actress and singer. Through a career that spanned 45 of her 47 years and for her renowned contralto voice, she attained international stardom as an actress in musical and dramatic roles, as a recording artist and on the concert stage...
in an interview, although she first sang "You Made Me Love You" for Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
, she was disappointed because she really had wanted to sing it for her idol Donat, to whom she wrote a fan letter after seeing The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo (1934 film)
The Count of Monte Cristo is a film adaptation of Alexandre Dumas, père's novel of the same name, directed by Rowland V. Lee and starring Robert Donat, Elissa Landi, and Louis Calhern...
(1934).
Personal life and death
Donat suffered from chronic asthmaAsthma
Asthma is the common chronic inflammatory disease of the airways characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and bronchospasm. Symptoms include wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath...
which affected his career and limited him to appearing in only twenty films. Author David Shipman speculates that Donat's asthma may have been psychosomatic: "His tragedy was that the promise of his early years was never fulfilled and that he was haunted by agonies of doubt and disappointment (which probably were the cause of his chronic asthma)"; however, this has never been substantiated. Donat's final role was the mandarin
Mandarin (bureaucrat)
A mandarin was a bureaucrat in imperial China, and also in the monarchist days of Vietnam where the system of Imperial examinations and scholar-bureaucrats was adopted under Chinese influence.-History and use of the term:...
Yang Cheng in The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is a 1958 American 20th Century Fox film based on the true story of Gladys Aylward, a tenacious British maid, who became a missionary in China during the tumultuous years leading up to World War II...
(1958). His last spoken words in this film were prophetic, "We shall not see each other again. I think. Farewell." He died on 9 June 1958 aged 53 in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. His biographer Kenneth Barrow writes on the cause of his death: "Perhaps the asthma had weakened him but, in fact, it was discovered he had a brain tumour the size of a duck egg and cerebral thrombosis was certified as the primary cause of death."
Donat was twice married, first to Ella Annesley Voysey (1929–1946), with whom he had three children, and subsequently to British actress Renée Asherson
Renee Asherson
Renée Asherson , born Dorothy Renée Ascherson, is an English actress of stage, film and television.Much of Asherson's theatrical career was spent in Shakespearean plays, appearing at such venues as the Old Vic, the Liverpool Playhouse and the Westminster Theatre...
(1953–1958). His nephew is the actor Peter Donat
Peter Donat
Peter Donat is a Canadian-American actor known for his roles in American television.-Early life:Donat was born Pierre Collingwood Donat in Kentville, Nova Scotia, Canada, the son of Marie and Philip Ernst Donat, a landscape gardener. His uncle was British actor Robert Donat...
.
Robert Donat has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame consists of more than 2,400 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along fifteen blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, California...
for motion pictures at 6420 Hollywood Blvd.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1932 | Men of Tomorrow | Julian Angell | |
| 1932 | That Night in London That Night in London That Night in London is a 1932 British crime film directed by Rowland V. Lee and starring Robert Donat, Pearl Argyle, Miles Mander and Roy Emerton A young bank clerk steals £500 and goes on a spree.-Cast:* Robert Donat - Dick Warren... |
Dick Warren | |
| 1933 | Cash Cash (1933 film) Cash is a 1933 British comedy film directed by Zoltan Korda and starring Edmund Gwenn, Wendy Barrie and Robert Donat.-Cast:* Edmund Gwenn - Edmund Gilbert* Wendy Barrie - Lilian Gilbert* Robert Donat - Paul Martin* Morris Harvey - Meyer... |
Paul Martin | |
| 1933 | Thomas Culpeper Thomas Culpeper Sir Thomas Culpeper was a courtier of Henry VIII and the lover of Henry's fifth queen, Catherine Howard. He was born to Alexander Culpeper of Bedgebury, to the south of Maidstone in Kent, and his second wife, Constance Harper. He was the middle child and his older brother, also named Thomas, was a... |
||
| 1934 | Edmond Dantès Edmond Dantès Edmond Dantès is the protagonist and title character of Alexandre Dumas, père's novel, The Count of Monte Cristo.Dumas may have gotten the idea for the character of Edmond from a story which he found in a book compiled by Jacques Peuchet, archivist to the French police. Peuchet related the tale of... , the eponymous Count |
||
| 1935 | Richard Hannay Richard Hannay Major-General Sir Richard Hannay, KCB, OBE, DSO, Legion of Honour, is a fictional secret agent created by Scottish novelist John Buchan. In his autobiography, Memory Hold-the-Door, Buchan suggests that the character is based, in part, on Edmund Ironside, from Edinburgh, a spy during the Second Boer... |
||
| 1936 | Murdoch Glourie/Donald Glourie | ||
| 1937 | Knight Without Armour Knight Without Armour Knight Without Armour is a 1937 British historical drama film made by London Films and distributed by United Artists. It was directed by Jacques Feyder and produced by Alexander Korda from a screenplay by Lajos Biró adapted by Frances Marion from the novel by James Hilton. The music score was by... |
Peter Ouronov | |
| 1938 | Dr. Andrew Manson | Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor Academy Award for Best Actor Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... |
|
| 1939 | Goodbye, Mr. Chips Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939 film) Goodbye, Mr. Chips is a 1939 British film based on the novel of the same name by James Hilton. It was directed by Sam Wood, and starred Robert Donat, Greer Garson, Terry Kilburn, John Mills, and Paul Henreid. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by R. C. Sherriff, Claudine West and Eric... |
Mr. Chips | Academy Award for Best Actor Academy Award for Best Actor Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... |
| 1942 | William Pitt / The Earl of Chatham | ||
| 1943 | Captain Terence Stevenson / Jan Tartu | released in the United States as Sabotage Agent | |
| 1943 | Actor | uncredited | |
| 1945 | Perfect Strangers Perfect Strangers (1945 film) Perfect Strangers , is a 1945 British drama film made by London Films. It stars Robert Donat and Deborah Kerr as a married couple whose relationship is shaken by their service in the Second World War. The supporting cast includes Glynis Johns, Ann Todd, Roland Culver, and Roger Moore in his... |
Robert Wilson | |
| 1947 | Captain Boycott | Charles Stewart Parnell Charles Stewart Parnell Charles Stewart Parnell was an Irish landowner, nationalist political leader, land reform agitator, and the founder and leader of the Irish Parliamentary Party... |
|
| 1948 | Sir Robert Morton | ||
| 1950 | Sergeant Jack Hardacre | ||
| 1951 | William Friese-Greene William Friese-Greene William Friese-Greene was a British portrait photographer and prolific inventor. He is principally known as a pioneer in the field of motion pictures and is credited by some as the inventor of cinematography.-Career:William Edward Green was born on 7 September 1855, in Bristol... , "the forgotten inventor of movies" |
||
| 1954 | Lease of Life Lease of Life Lease of Life is a 1954 British film drama made by Ealing Studios and directed by Charles Frend. The film was designed as a star-vehicle for Robert Donat, representing his return to the screen after an absence of over three years during which he had been battling the chronic asthma which plagued... |
Rev. William Thorne | Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor |
| 1958 | Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama The Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture - Drama was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as a separate category in 1951... |
External links
- Robert Donat archive at the University of Bristol Theatre Collection- University of BristolUniversity of BristolThe University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...
- papers of Robert Donat, University of Manchester
- Photographs and literature
- Robert Donat Blog