1. Ronald Charles Colman was an English-born actor who started his career in theatre and silent film in his native country, then emigrated to the United States where he had a highly successful Hollywood film career.
40 Facts About Ronald Colman
1. 2.
Ronald Colman starred in silent films and successfully transitioned to sound, aided by a distinctive, pleasing voice.
3.
Ronald Colman was most popular during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.
4.
Ronald Colman received Oscar nominations for Bulldog Drummond, Condemned and Random Harvest.
5.
Ronald Colman played the starring role in the Technicolor classic Kismet, with Marlene Dietrich.
6.
Ronald Colman was an inaugural recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in motion pictures.
7.
Ronald Colman was awarded a second star for his television work.
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Marlene Dietrich John Brodie Robert Warwick Cecil Hepworth Greta Garbo George Eastman 8.
Ronald Charles Colman was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the third son and fifth child of Charles Colman, a silk merchant and mantle manufacturer, and his wife Marjory Read Fraser.
9.
Ronald Colman's surviving siblings were Gladys, Edith, Eric and Freda.
10.
Ronald Colman was a cousin of the Labour politician Grace Colman.
11.
Ronald Colman attended in Littlehampton where he discovered that he enjoyed acting, despite his shyness.
12.
Ronald Colman intended to study engineering at Cambridge, but his father's sudden death from pneumonia in 1907 made it financially impossible.
13.
About the same time when he joined the London Scottish, Ronald Colman took to the stage and soon established himself as a member of the performing community in Ealing.
14.
Ronald Colman began with banjo solos at benefit concerts and two years later joined the short-lived Pierrot troupes The Tangerines and The Summer 'Uns, who only had one performance.
15.
Besides banjo solos and duets, Ronald Colman's repertoire included songs and duets like "Two Little Sausages" and musical monologues, recitals of poems like The Green Eye of the Little Yellow God, funny stories and above all character sketches from Dickens such as Uriah Heep, John Brodie and Martin Chuzzlewit.
16.
When Ronald Colman rejoined the Popinjays in July 1916 for performances at the Pavilion in Derby, between theatre engagements, there was a marked change in his repertoire: The character sketch was now of a Chelsea Pensioner, and he recited Spotty, a Tale of the Trenches.
17.
Ronald Colman made his debut as Freddy Fitzfoodle in Rich Miss Rustle at Victoria Hall, Ealing, on 11 November 1909.
18.
Around this time Ronald Colman joined the Bancroft Dramatic Club, which had been founded in 1892 by Sir Squire Bancroft and performed mainly at the King's Hall Theatre on the premises of the National Sporting Club in Covent Garden.
19.
Ronald Colman performed in Mr Steinman's Corner and as Douglas Cattermole in The Private Secretary with Vivian Parrott's Amateur Dramatic Society.
20.
In 1920, Ronald Colman went to America and toured with Robert Warwick in The Dauntless Three and subsequently toured with Fay Bainter in East Is West.
21.
Ronald Colman married his first wife, Thelma Raye, in 1920; they divorced in 1934.
22.
Ronald Colman had first appeared in films in Britain in 1917 and 1919 for director Cecil Hepworth.
23.
Ronald Colman subsequently acted for the old Broadwest Film Company in Snow in the Desert.
24.
Ronald Colman became a very popular silent film star in both romantic and adventure films, among them The Dark Angel, Stella Dallas, Beau Geste, and The Winning of Barbara Worth.
25.
Towards the end of the silent era, Ronald Colman was teamed with Hungarian actress Vilma Banky under Samuel Goldwyn; the two were a popular film team, rivalling Greta Garbo and John Gilbert.
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Marlene Dietrich John Brodie Robert Warwick Cecil Hepworth Greta Garbo George Eastman 26.
Ronald Colman was often viewed as a suave English gentleman, whose voice embodied chivalry and mirrored the image of a "stereotypical English gentleman".
27.
Ronald Colman thereafter appeared in a number of notable films: Raffles in 1930, Clive of India and A Tale of Two Cities in 1935, Under Two Flags in 1936, The Prisoner of Zenda and Lost Horizon in 1937, If I Were King in 1938, and Random Harvest and The Talk of the Town in 1942.
28.
Ronald Colman won the Best Actor Oscar in 1948 for A Double Life.
29.
Ronald Colman next starred in a screwball comedy, 1950's Champagne for Caesar.
30.
Ronald Colman has been mentioned in many novels, but he is specifically mentioned in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man because of his charming, well-known voice.
31.
On that day, Ronald Colman read "Poem and Prayer for an Invading Army," written by Edna St Vincent Millay for exclusive radio use by NBC.
32.
Ronald Colman was the host and occasional star of the syndicated anthology Favorite Story.
33.
In 1957, Ronald Colman had surgery for a lung infection, and suffered from ill health afterwards.
34.
Ronald Colman was hospitalized and died on 19 May 1958, aged 67, from acute emphysema in Santa Barbara, California, and was interred in the Santa Barbara Cemetery.
35.
Ronald Colman was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
36.
Ronald Colman was nominated again for Random Harvest, before winning for A Double Life, in which he played the role of Anthony John, an actor playing Othello who comes to identify with the character.
37.
Ronald Colman won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in 1947 for A Double Life.
38.
Ronald Colman was a recipient of the George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film.
39.
Ronald Colman has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, one for motion pictures at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard and one for television at 1623 Vine Street.
40.
Ronald Colman is the subject of a biography written by his daughter Juliet Benita Colman in 1975: Ronald Colman: A Very Private Person.