Terence De Marney
Encyclopedia
Terence De Marney was a British
film, stage, radio, and television actor, as well as theatre director and writer.
in The Last of Mrs. Cheyne. In 1930 he played Gustave in The Lady of the Camellias, and toured South Africa
as Raleigh in Journey's End
. In 1934 he played Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet
at the Open Air Theatre, and Giovanni in 'Tis Pity She's a Whore
at the Arts. Thrillers tended to be his stock in trade, appearing in a revival of Sutton Vane's Outward Bound during the 1930s, as well as Agatha Christie
's Ten Little Indians
, Dear Murderer, as well as a revival of Gerald Du Maurier
's Trilby
in later years.
He also appeared on radio as the Count of Monte Cristo, and was the first actor to portray Leslie Charteris
' Simon Templar
on radio, when The Saint
debuted on Radio Athlone in 1940 for six episodes.
He made his film debut in 1931, and went on to appear in a number of quota quickies of the period, including mystery horror films The Unholy Quest (1934) and The Mystery of the Marie Celeste (1935), the latter opposite Bela Lugosi
. These roles in the macabre would continue throughout his career and took in films such as The Pharaoh's Curse (1957), Boris Karloff
vehicle Die, Monster, Die (1965) and The Hand of Night (1966).
After starring in 'B' movies like Duel Alibi (1948), and No Way Back (1949), he uprooted to Hollywood, where he appeared in a number of famous television series such as Bonanza
, Wagon Train
, Maverick
, and The Twilight Zone
. He was a series regular on Johnny Ringo
. As well as small roles in films such as The Ten Commandments (1956), and Spartacus
(1960). He returned to Britain in the 1960s and continued to appear in television series such as Maigret
, Dr. Finlay's Casebook, Doctor Who
, and Z-Cars
. His last film appearance was in The Strange Affair (1968).
, he founded the Independent Theatre Club at the Kingsway Theatre, where he directed Emil Ludwig's Versailles and an adaptation of Schnitzler's novel Fraulein Else. He also directed Louis Golding's Magnolia Street Story and Master Crook, originally called Cosh Boy. With his brother he alternated as Slim Callaghan in Meet Slim Callaghan at the Garrick Theatre
and carried on the same role in the play's sequel Slim Carves, which he produced and directed.
Whispering Gallery, Wanted for Murder and The Crime of Margaret Foley, and he collaborated with Ralph Stock to write Search.
.
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
film, stage, radio, and television actor, as well as theatre director and writer.
Actor
His career in the theatre began in 1923 and continued almost without interruption, taking in film, radio and television parts. He toured with Mrs. Patrick CampbellMrs Patrick Campbell
Mrs Patrick Campbell was a British stage actress.-Early life and marriages:Campbell was born Beatrice Stella Tanner in Kensington, London, to John Tanner and Maria Luigia Giovanna, daughter of Count Angelo Romanini...
in The Last of Mrs. Cheyne. In 1930 he played Gustave in The Lady of the Camellias, and toured South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
as Raleigh in Journey's End
Journey's End
Journey's End is a 1928 drama, the seventh of English playwright R. C. Sherriff. It was first performed at the Apollo Theatre in London by the Incorporated Stage Society on 9 December 1928, starring a young Laurence Olivier, and soon moved to other West End theatres for a two-year run...
. In 1934 he played Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
at the Open Air Theatre, and Giovanni in 'Tis Pity She's a Whore
'Tis Pity She's a Whore
'Tis Pity She's a Whore is a tragedy written by John Ford. It was likely first performed between 1629 and 1633, by Queen Henrietta's Men at the Cockpit Theatre. The play was first published in 1633, in a quarto printed by Nicholas Okes for the bookseller Richard Collins...
at the Arts. Thrillers tended to be his stock in trade, appearing in a revival of Sutton Vane's Outward Bound during the 1930s, as well as Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
's Ten Little Indians
Ten Little Indians
"Ten Little Indians" is a children's rhyme. The song is usually performed to the Irish folk tune "Michael Finnegan". It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 13512.-Lyrics:The modern lyrics are believed to be public domain and are as follows:...
, Dear Murderer, as well as a revival of Gerald Du Maurier
Gerald du Maurier
Sir Gerald Hubert Edward Busson du Maurier was an English actor and manager. He was the son of the writer George du Maurier and brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. In 1902, he married the actress Muriel Beaumont with whom he had three daughters: Angela du Maurier , Daphne du Maurier and Jeanne...
's Trilby
Trilby
A trilby hat is a type of fedora. The trilby is viewed as the rich man's favored hat; it is commonly called the "brown trilby" in England and is much seen at the horse races. It is described as a "crumpled" fedora...
in later years.
He also appeared on radio as the Count of Monte Cristo, and was the first actor to portray Leslie Charteris
Leslie Charteris
Leslie Charteris , born Leslie Charles Bowyer-Yin, was a half-Chinese, half English author of primarily mystery fiction, as well as a screenwriter. He was best known for his many books chronicling the adventures of Simon Templar, alias "The Saint."-Early life:Charteris was born to a Chinese father...
' Simon Templar
Simon Templar
Simon Templar is a British fictional character known as The Saint featured in a long-running series of books by Leslie Charteris published between 1928 and 1963. After that date, other authors collaborated with Charteris on books until 1983; two additional works produced without Charteris’s...
on radio, when The Saint
The Saint
- Fiction :* Simon Templar, also known as "The Saint", the protagonist of a book series by Leslie Charteris and subsequent adaptations:** The Saint , starring Louis Hayward , George Sanders and Hugh Sinclair...
debuted on Radio Athlone in 1940 for six episodes.
He made his film debut in 1931, and went on to appear in a number of quota quickies of the period, including mystery horror films The Unholy Quest (1934) and The Mystery of the Marie Celeste (1935), the latter opposite Bela Lugosi
Béla Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...
. These roles in the macabre would continue throughout his career and took in films such as The Pharaoh's Curse (1957), Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff
William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
vehicle Die, Monster, Die (1965) and The Hand of Night (1966).
After starring in 'B' movies like Duel Alibi (1948), and No Way Back (1949), he uprooted to Hollywood, where he appeared in a number of famous television series such as Bonanza
Bonanza
Bonanza is an American western television series that both ran on and was a production of NBC from September 12, 1959 to January 16, 1973. Lasting 14 seasons and 430 episodes, it ranks as the second longest running western series and still continues to air in syndication. It centers on the...
, Wagon Train
Wagon Train
Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...
, Maverick
Maverick (TV series)
Maverick is a western television series with comedic overtones created by Roy Huggins. The show ran from September 22, 1957 to July 8, 1962 on ABC and stars James Garner as Bret Maverick, a cagey, articulate cardsharp. Eight episodes into the first season, he was joined by Jack Kelly as his brother...
, and The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...
. He was a series regular on Johnny Ringo
Johnny Ringo (TV series)
Johnny Ringo is a Western television series starring Don Durant that aired on CBS from October 1, 1959, until June 30, 1960. It was loosely based on the life of the notorious gunfighter Johnny Ringo, who tangled with Wyatt Earp, John "Doc" Holliday, and "Buckskin" Franklin Leslie.This fictional...
. As well as small roles in films such as The Ten Commandments (1956), and Spartacus
Spartacus
Spartacus was a famous leader of the slaves in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Little is known about Spartacus beyond the events of the war, and surviving historical accounts are sometimes contradictory and may not always be reliable...
(1960). He returned to Britain in the 1960s and continued to appear in television series such as Maigret
Maigret
Jules Maigret, Maigret to most people, including his wife, is a fictional police detective, actually a commissaire or commissioner of the Paris "Brigade Criminelle" , created by writer Georges Simenon.Seventy-five novels and twenty-eight short stories about Maigret were published between 1931 and...
, Dr. Finlay's Casebook, Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, and Z-Cars
Z-Cars
Z-Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby in the outskirts of Liverpool in Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978.-Origins:The series was developed by...
. His last film appearance was in The Strange Affair (1968).
Director
In 1931 he became director of the Connaught Theatre, Worthing, and in 1932, with his brother, the actor Derrick De MarneyDerrick De Marney
Derrick De Marney was an English stage and film actor and producer, of French and Irish ancestry.-Actor:On the London stage from 1922 and films from 1928...
, he founded the Independent Theatre Club at the Kingsway Theatre, where he directed Emil Ludwig's Versailles and an adaptation of Schnitzler's novel Fraulein Else. He also directed Louis Golding's Magnolia Street Story and Master Crook, originally called Cosh Boy. With his brother he alternated as Slim Callaghan in Meet Slim Callaghan at the Garrick Theatre
Garrick Theatre
The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a...
and carried on the same role in the play's sequel Slim Carves, which he produced and directed.
Writer
Wrote the play, Wanted for Murder in 1946 which was made into a movie, and was also known as A Voice in the Night. With Percy Robinson he wrote the stage thrillers,Whispering Gallery, Wanted for Murder and The Crime of Margaret Foley, and he collaborated with Ralph Stock to write Search.
Death
Terence De Marney died in 1971, aged 63, after an accidental fall in front of a train in the London UndergroundLondon Underground accidents
The London Underground network carries more than a billion passengers a year. It is one of the safest mass transport systems in the world with just one fatal accident for every 300 million journeys. Per passenger carried, London Underground’s safety record is even better than that of British Rail,...
.
Spouses
His first wife was Diana Hope Dunbar. His second wife was actress Beryl Measor (1908–1965), who predeceased him.Selected filmography
- I Killed the CountI Killed the CountI Killed the Count is a 1939 British, black-and-white, comedy, crime, mystery film, directed by Frederic Zelnik and starring Ronald Shiner as Mullet, Ben Lyon, Syd Walker, Terence de Marney, Barbara Blair and Athole Stewart. It was produced by Grafton Films...
(1939) - They Met in the DarkThey Met in the DarkThey Met in the Dark is a 1943 British thriller film directed by Karel Lamac and starring James Mason, Joyce Howard and Edward Rigby. A cashiered Royal Naval officer and a young woman join forces to solve a murder and hunt down a German spy ring.-Cast:...
(1943) - 23 Paces to Baker Street23 Paces to Baker Street23 Paces to Baker Street is a 1956 American drama film released by 20th Century Fox. The Hitchcockian mystery thriller, filmed in Cinemascope on location in London, focuses on Philip Hannon, a blind playwright who overhears a partial conversation he believes is related to the planning of a kidnapping...
(1956) - My Gun Is Quick (1957)
- The Wreck of the Mary DeareThe Wreck of the Mary Deare (film)The Wreck of the Mary Deare is a 1959 Metrocolor British-American thriller film directed by Michael Anderson and starring Gary Cooper, Charlton Heston, Michael Redgrave, Cecil Parker, Richard Harris and John Le Mesurier, based upon the novel by Hammond Innes.-Synopsis:A merchant marine captain,...
(1959) - The Secret of the Purple ReefThe Secret of the Purple ReefThe Secret of The Purple Reef is a 1960 - 20th Century Fox film based on a novel by Dorothy Cottrell entitled The Silent Reefs. It starred soon-to-be-famous actors, Richard Chamberlain and Peter Falk.-Cast:...
(1960) - On the Double (1961)
- Monster of Terror (1965)
- Death Is a WomanDeath Is a WomanDeath Is a Woman is a 1966 British mystery film directed by Frederic Goode and starring Trisha Noble, Mark Burns and Shaun Curry.-Cast:* Trisha Noble ... Francesca * Mark Burns ... Dennis Parbury* Shaun Curry ... Joe...
(1966) - SeparationSeparation (1967 film)Separation, a film produced in 1967 and released in 1968, was written by and starred Jane Arden and directed by Jack Bond. The film explores the life of a middle-aged woman following the breakdown of her marriage...
(1968) - The Strange AffairThe Strange AffairThe Strange Affair is a 1968 British crime film directed by David Greene.-Cast:* Michael York - Peter Strange* Jeremy Kemp - Peirce* Susan George - Frederika 'Fred' March* Jack Watson - Quince* George A. Cooper - Kingsley...
(1968)
External links
- Obituary published in The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
. Excerpt. - Terence De Marney as The Saint