15 Facts About Miles Malleson

William Miles Malleson was an English actor and dramatist, particularly remembered for his appearances in British comedy films of the 1930s to 1960s.

Miles Malleson translated and adapted several of Moliere's plays.

Miles Malleson was born in Avondale Road, South Croydon, Surrey, England, the son of Edmund Taylor Miles Malleson, a manufacturing chemist, and Myrrha Bithynia Frances Borrell, a descendant of the numismatist Henry Perigal Borrell and the inventor Francis Maceroni.

Miles Malleson was educated at Brighton College and Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

Miles Malleson studied acting at Herbert Beerbohm Tree's Academy of Dramatic Art, which later was renamed the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

In late 1915, Miles Malleson met Clifford Allen, who converted Miles Malleson to pacifism and socialism.

Miles Malleson subsequently became a member of the peace organisation, the No-Conscription Fellowship.

Miles Malleson wrote two anti-war plays, "D" Company and Black 'Ell, the latter refused for performance in 1916 and only produced in the UK nine years later.

Miles Malleson was a supporter of the Bolshevik revolution and a founder member of the socialist 1917 Club in Soho.

Miles Malleson had a receding chin and a sharp nose that produced the effect of a double chin.

Miles Malleson's manner was gentle and absent-minded; his voice, soft and high.

Miles Malleson is best remembered for his roles as the Sultan in The Thief of Bagdad, the poetically-inclined hangman in Kind Hearts and Coronets, and as Dr Chasuble in The Importance of Being Earnest.

For example, Sir John Gielgud noted that Miles Malleson was 'splendid' as Polonius in Hamlet.

Miles Malleson died in March 1969, following surgery to remove cataracts and was cremated in a private ceremony.

In 1915, he married writer and aspiring actress Lady Constance Miles Malleson, who was interested in social reform.