60 Facts About Kenneth More

Kenneth More played more serious roles as a leading man, beginning with The Deep Blue Sea, Reach for the Sky, A Night to Remember, North West Frontier, The 39 Steps and Sink the Bismarck.

Kenneth More was educated at Victoria College, Jersey, having spent part of his childhood in the Channel Islands, where his father was general manager of the Jersey Eastern Railway.

Kenneth More gave up his training and worked for a while in Sainsbury's on the Strand.

When More was 17 his father died, and he applied to join the Royal Air Force, but failed the medical test for equilibrium.

Kenneth More then travelled to Canada, intending to work as a fur trapper, but was sent back because he lacked immigration papers.

Kenneth More played there for a year, which then led to regular work in repertory, including Newcastle, performing in plays such as Burke and Hare and Dracula's Daughter.

Kenneth More continued his theatre work until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939.

Kenneth More had the occasional bit part in films such as Look Up and Laugh.

Kenneth More appeared in Paul Vercors' play The Silence of the Sea broadcast on the day British TV recommenced after the war - 7 June 1946, and this was followed by a number of television roles including Badger in an adaptation of Toad of Toad Hall, and a bit part in the film School for Secrets.

Kenneth More was seen by Noel Coward playing a small role on stage in Power Without Glory, which led to his being cast in Coward's Peace In Our Time on stage.

Kenneth More thought this film would launch him more than he did and held off accepting parts, which resulted in him "nearly starving".

Kenneth More took minor parts in Man on the Run, Now Barabbas, and Stop Press Girl.

Kenneth More achieved a notable stage success in The Way Things Go with Ronald Squire, from whom Kenneth More later claimed he learned his stage technique.

Kenneth More was in demand for minor roles on screen such as Morning Departure and Chance of a Lifetime.

Kenneth More had a good part as a British agent in The Clouded Yellow for Ralph Thomas.

Kenneth More could be seen in The Franchise Affair and The Galloping Major.

Kenneth More achieved above the title billing for the first time with a low budget comedy, Brandy for the Parson, playing a smuggler.

Kenneth More was in another Hollywood-financed film, Never Let Me Go, playing a colleague of Clark Gable.

Kenneth More said Cornelius never saw him in the play but cast him on the basis of his work in The Galloping Major.

Kenneth More next made Our Girl Friday and Doctor in the House, the latter for Ralph Thomas.

Kenneth More appeared in a TV production of The Deep Blue Sea in 1954, which was seen by an audience of 11 million.

Kenneth More was now established as one of Britain's biggest stars and Korda announced plans to feature him in two films based on true stories, one, The Alcock and Brown Story about the Transatlantic flight of Alcock and Brown in 1919 featuring Denholm Elliott, and the other Clifton James, the double for Field Marshal Montgomery.

However Kenneth More did accept Korda's offer to appear in a film adaptation of The Deep Blue Sea gaining the Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for his performance.

Kenneth More did the narration for Korda's The Man Who Loved Redheads.

Kenneth More received an offer from David Lean to play the lead role in an adaptation of The Wind Cannot Read by Richard Mason.

Kenneth More was unsure about whether the public would accept him in such a straightforwardly romantic part and turned it down, a decision he later regarded as "the greatest mistake I ever made professionally".

Kenneth More received offers to go to Hollywood, but turned them down, unsure his persona would be effective there.

Kenneth More's strengths were his ability to portray charm; basically he was the officer returning from the war and he was superb in that kind of role.

In 1957, Kenneth More had announced that he would play the lead role of a captain caught up in the Indian Mutiny in Night Runners of Bengal but the film was never made.

Kenneth More turned down an offer from Roy Ward Baker to play a German POW in The One That Got Away, but agreed to play the lead part of Charles Lightoller in the Titanic film for the same director, A Night to Remember.

Kenneth More then made The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw, a Western spoof originally written for Clifton Webb.

Kenneth More had an American director and co-star, although the film was shot in Spain.

In December 1958 Kenneth More announced he had a contract with Rank to make seven films in five years at a flat salary, plus three films in five years for Dan Angel and 20th Century Fox of which Sheriff was the first.

Kenneth More said he would no longer make a film without an American co star.

Kenneth More did another with Ralph Thomas, a remake of The 39 Steps, with a Hollywood co star.

Kenneth More appeared in a Fox-Rank film set in India, North West Frontier, co-starring Lauren Bacall and directed by J Lee Thompson.

Kenneth More was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1959 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the Odeon Cinema, Shepherd's Bush.

Kenneth More made the mistake of heckling and swearing at Davis at a BAFTA dinner at the Dorchester, losing the role.

Kenneth More went on to make a comedy, Man In The Moon, which flopped at the box office, "his first real flop" since becoming a star, according to Shipman.

Kenneth More returned to the stage directing The Angry Deep in Brighton in 1960.

Kenneth More returned to military roles as one of many stars in The Longest Day playing Beachmaster Captain Colin Maud and played the lead in a comedy produced by Daniel Angel and directed by Wendy Toyes, We Joined the Navy, which was poorly received.

Kenneth More says he accepted the lead in the low-budget youth film, Some People, because he had no other offers at the time.

Some felt Kenneth More's popularity declined when he left his second wife to live with Angela Douglas who had been in the cast of Some People.

Kenneth More returned to television with the lead in Heart to Heart written by Terence Rattigan.

Kenneth More received an offer to star in The Comedy Man directed by Alvin Rakoff, but the film was not released for two years.

Kenneth More then made Collect Your Hand Luggage for television directed by Ted Kotcheff.

Kenneth More was going to star in a film about the Cyprus Emergency called The Cyprus Story, playing an intelligence officer who falls in love with Elsa Martinelli who plays the daughter of an EOKA sympathiser.

Kenneth More went back to the stage, appearing in Out of the Crocodile and Our Man Crichton, which ran for six months.

Kenneth More appeared in a small screen version of Simon Raven's The Scapegoat.

Kenneth More appeared in a 35-minute prologue to The Collector at the special request of director William Wyler, but it ended up being removed entirely from the final film.

Kenneth More's popularity recovered in the 1960s through West End stage performances and television roles, especially following his success in The Forsyte Saga.

On screen Kenneth More had a small role in Dark of the Sun and a bigger one in Fraulein Doktor.

Kenneth More took the role of the Ghost of Christmas Present in Scrooge and had long stage runs with a revival of The Winslow Boy and Getting On by Alan Bennett.

Kenneth More was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1970 New Year Honours.

Kenneth More played the title character in ATV's Father Brown series.

Kenneth More married Mabel Edith "Bill" Barkby in 1952 but left her in 1968 for Angela Douglas, an actress 26 years his junior, causing considerable estrangement from friends and family.

Kenneth More was married to Douglas from 17 March 1968 until his death in 1982.

Kenneth More wrote two autobiographies, Happy Go Lucky and Kenneth More or Less.

Kenneth More was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium and a plaque erected at the actors' church St Paul's, Covent Garden, following a memorial attended by family, friends and colleagues.

The Kenneth More Theatre, named in honour of the actor, was founded in 1975, in Ilford, east London.