Ronald Charles Colman was an English-born actor, starting his career in theatre and silent film in his native country, then immigrating to the United States and having a successful Hollywood film career.
33 Facts About Ronald Colman
2.
Ronald Colman was most popular during the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.
3.
Ronald Colman received Oscar nominations for Bulldog Drummond, Condemned and Random Harvest.
4.
Ronald Colman played the starring role in the Technicolor classic Kismet, with Marlene Dietrich, which was nominated for four Academy Awards.
5.
Ronald Colman was an inaugural recipient of a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in motion pictures.
6.
Ronald Colman was awarded a second star for his television work.
7.
Ronald Charles Colman was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the third son and fifth child of Charles Colman, a silk merchant, and his wife Marjory Read Fraser.
8.
Ronald Colman's surviving siblings were Gladys, Edith, Eric and Freda.
9.
Ronald Colman was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he discovered that he enjoyed acting, despite his shyness.
10.
Ronald Colman intended to study engineering at Cambridge, but his father's sudden death from pneumonia in 1907 made it financially impossible.
11.
Ronald Colman made his first appearance on the professional stage in 1914.
12.
On 31 October 1914, at the Battle of Messines, Ronald Colman was seriously wounded by shrapnel in his ankle, which gave him a limp that he would attempt to hide throughout his acting career.
13.
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.
14.
Ronald Colman married his first wife, Thelma Raye, in 1920; they divorced in 1934.
15.
Ronald Colman had first appeared in films in Britain in 1917 and 1919 for director Cecil Hepworth.
16.
Ronald Colman subsequently acted for the old Broadwest Film Company in Snow in the Desert.
17.
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.
18.
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.
19.
Ronald Colman was often viewed as a suave English gentleman, whose voice embodied chivalry and mirrored the image of a "stereotypical English gentleman".
20.
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.
21.
Ronald Colman won the Best Actor Oscar in 1948 for A Double Life.
22.
Ronald Colman next starred in a screwball comedy, 1950's Champagne for Caesar.
23.
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.
24.
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.
25.
Ronald Colman was the host and occasional star of the syndicated anthology Favorite Story.
26.
Ronald Colman had an operation in 1957 for a lung infection, and suffered from ill health afterwards.
27.
Ronald Colman died on 19 May 1958, aged 67, from acute emphysema in Santa Barbara, California, and was interred in the Santa Barbara Cemetery.
28.
Ronald Colman was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actor.
29.
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.
30.
Ronald Colman won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in 1947 for A Double Life.
31.
Ronald Colman was a recipient of the George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film.
32.
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.
33.
Ronald Colman is the subject of a biography written by his daughter Juliet Benita Colman in 1975: Ronald Colman: A Very Private Person.