1. Robert Donat appeared in the West End when he starred in A Sleeping Clergyman in 1933, and in 1936 he took on the management of the West End's Queen's Theatre.
39 Facts About Robert Donat
1. 2.
Robert Donat suffered from chronic asthma, which affected his career and limited him to appearing in only 19 films.
3.
Friedrich Robert Donat was born and baptised in Withington, Manchester, the fourth and youngest son of Ernst Emil Donat, a civil engineer of German origin from Prussia, and his wife, Rose Alice Green.
4.
Robert Donat left school at 15, working as Bernard's secretary to fund his continued lessons.
5.
Robert Donat made his first stage appearance in 1921, at the age of 16, with Henry Baynton's company at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Birmingham, playing Lucius in Julius Caesar.
6.
Robert Donat's break came in 1924 when he joined the company of Shakespearean actor Sir Frank Benson, where he stayed for four years.
7.
Robert Donat appeared in a number of plays, some with Flora Robson, and directed.
8.
In 1929, Robert Donat married Ella Annesley Voysey, the daughter of Rev Ellison Annesley Voysey and Rachel Voysey nee Enthoven.
9.
Robert Donat received acclaim for a performance in a revival of Saint Joan.
10.
Robert Donat made his film debut in a quota quickie Men of Tomorrow for Alexander Korda's London Films.
11.
Robert Donat had a key role in Cash, directed by Zoltan Korda, co-starring Edmund Gwenn.
12.
At the 1933 Malvern Festival, Robert Donat received good reviews for his performance in A Sleeping Clergyman, which transferred to the West End.
13.
The Count of Monte Cristo was successful and Robert Donat was offered the lead role in a number of films for Warners, including Anthony Adverse and another swashbuckler, Captain Blood.
14.
In England, Robert Donat had the star role in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps opposite Madeleine Carroll.
15.
Robert Donat's performance was well-received: "Mr Donat, who has never been very well served in the cinema until now, suddenly blossoms out into a romantic comedian of no mean order", wrote the film critic C A Lejeune in The Observer at the time of the film's release.
16.
Robert Donat acquired the rights and passed them on to Korda, although Carroll was unavailable by then.
17.
Robert Donat was caught up in the furore, and the stress was so great that he suffered a nervous collapse a few days into the shooting and had to enter a nursing home.
18.
The production delay caused by Robert Donat's asthma led to talk of replacing him.
19.
Dietrich, whose contract with Korda was for $450,000, threatened to leave the project if that happened, and production was halted for two months, until Robert Donat was able to return to work.
20.
Robert Donat planned to return to the US in 1937 to make Clementine for Small at RKO but changed his mind, fearing legal reprisals from Warners.
21.
Robert Donat played in George Bernard Shaw's The Devil's Disciple on stage at the Piccadilly Theatre in London and the Old Vic.
22.
Robert Donat is best remembered for his role as the gentle English schoolmaster Mr Chips in Goodbye, Mr Chips.
23.
Robert Donat played three roles at the 1939 Buxton Festival, including a part in The Good-Natur'd Man.
24.
Robert Donat had the title role in the film The Young Mr Pitt for 20th Century Fox and played Captain Shotover in a new staging of Heartbreak House at the Cambridge Theatre in London from 1942 to 1943.
25.
Robert Donat wanted to play the Chorus in Olivier's Henry V, but the role went to Leslie Banks.
26.
Robert Donat was reunited with Korda for the film Perfect Strangers, known in the United States as Vacation from Marriage, with Deborah Kerr.
27.
Robert Donat directed The Man Behind the Statue by Peter Ustinov.
28.
Robert Donat had a small but crucial scene as Irish leader Charles Stewart Parnell in Captain Boycott with Stewart Granger.
29.
Robert Donat appeared on stage in a revival of A Sleeping Clergyman in 1947.
30.
Robert Donat auditioned as Bill Sikes in David Lean's Oliver Twist, but Lean thought him wrong for the part and cast Robert Newton instead.
31.
Robert Donat played the male lead in The Winslow Boy, a popular adaptation of the Terence Rattigan play.
32.
The film's soundtrack had to be re-recorded after shooting was completed because Robert Donat's asthma had severely affected his voice.
33.
Robert Donat was cast as Thomas Becket in T S Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral in Robert Helpmann's production at The Old Vic theatre in 1952 but, although his return to stage was well received, his illness forced him to withdraw during the run.
34.
Robert Donat had collapsed with a stroke during filming but managed to recover enough to complete the film.
35.
In 1929, Robert Donat married Ella Annesley Voysey, niece of architect Charles Voysey.
36.
On 4 May 1953, Robert Donat married again, to actress Renee Asherson, born Dorothy Renee Ascherson, daughter of Charles Ascherson and Dorothy Lilian Wiseman.
37.
Robert Donat died at the West End Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Soho, London, on 9 June 1958, aged 53.
38.
Robert Donat's body was cremated privately in Marylebone three days after his death.
39.
Robert Donat has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6420 Hollywood Blvd.