1. Eric Harold Portman was an English stage and film actor.
30 Facts About Eric Portman
1. 2.
Eric Portman is probably best remembered for his roles in three films for Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger during the 1940s.
3.
Eric Portman's birth was registered with the middle name of Harold but he would later adopt his mother's maiden name as his middle name.
4.
Eric Portman made his professional stage debut in 1924 with Henry Baynton's company.
5.
Eric Portman joined the company as a 'passenger' and appeared in their production of Richard II at the Victoria Hall, Sunderland which led to Courtneidge giving him a contract.
6.
Eric Portman made his West End debut at the Savoy Theatre in London, in September 1924, as Antipholous of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors.
7.
Eric Portman was engaged by Lilian Baylis for the Old Vic Company.
8.
In 1928, Eric Portman played Romeo at the rebuilt Old Vic.
9.
In 1933, Eric Portman was in Diplomacy at the Prince's Theatre with Gerald du Maurier and Basil Rathbone.
10.
Eric Portman made Hyde Park Corner with Gordon Harker and directed by Sinclair Hill; Old Roses and Abdul the Damned.
11.
In 1936 Eric Portman had a stage hit playing Lord Byron in Bitter Harvest.
12.
Eric Portman made another film with Tod Slaughter, The Crimes of Stephen Hawke, and was in Moonlight Sonata.
13.
Eric Portman went to the US and played in Madame Bovary on Broadway for the Theatre Guild of America.
14.
Eric Portman had a small role in The Prince and the Pauper, but disliked Hollywood and did not stay long.
15.
Eric Portman was back on Broadway in I Have Been Here Before by J B Priestley.
16.
Eric Portman claimed that Ribbentrop had told him that "when Germany wins the war, Eric Portman would be installed as the greatest English star in the New Europe" at a purpose-built film studio in Berlin.
17.
Eric Portman was established as a star and signed a long-term contract with Gainsborough Pictures.
18.
Eric Portman was in Powell and Pressburger's follow up, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing, which reworked the story of The 49th Parallel to be about Allied pilots in occupied Holland.
19.
Eric Portman played a Belgian resistance leader in Uncensored from director Anthony Asquith, and a German pilot in Squadron Leader X with director Lance Comfort.
20.
Eric Portman was a sailor in Asquith's We Dive at Dawn and a factory supervisor in Millions Like Us from Launder and Gilliat.
21.
Eric Portman was in another war story in Comfort's Escape to Danger, then was back with Powell and Pressburger for A Canterbury Tale.
22.
Eric Portman had the lead in Great Day with Flora Robson and in the expensive colonial epic Men of Two Worlds.
23.
Eric Portman was a hangman in Daybreak, then made Corridor of Mirrors and The Blind Goddess.
24.
Eric Portman made two films for the new producing team of Maxwell Setton and Aubrey Baring, The Spider and the Fly and Cairo Road.
25.
Eric Portman was one of many names in The Magic Box and then made an Ealing comedy, His Excellency, playing a trade unionist who becomes Governor of a British colony.
26.
Eric Portman had a supporting part in The Deep Blue Sea and Child in the House.
27.
Eric Portman had the lead in The Good Companions.
28.
Eric Portman had better luck the following year in a production of Eugene O'Neill's A Touch of the Poet, which had a long run.
29.
In 1962 Eric Portman was in a stage adaptation of A Passage to India that ran for 109 performances on Broadway.
30.
Eric Portman died at age 68 at his home in St Veep, Cornwall on 7 December 1969 from heart disease.