Ronald Charles Colman (9 February 1891 – 19 May 1958) was an English actor, popular during the 1930s and 1940s. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for A Double Life (1947), and received nominations for Random Harvest (1942) and Bulldog Drummond/Condemned (1929, nominated for his work in both). Colman starred in the classic films A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Lost Horizon (1937), The Prisoner of Zenda (1937), and The Talk of the Town (1942).
Academy Award for Best Actor, Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture – Drama
Movies
Random Harvest, Lost Horizon, A Double Life, The Prisoner of Zenda, The Talk of the Town, A Tale of Two Cities, If I Were King, Bulldog Drummond, The White Sister, Raffles, The Winning of Barbara Worth, Clive of India, Under Two Flags, Arrowsmith, Champagne for Caesar, Condemned, Lucky Partners, Aro...
A man usually falls in love with a woman who asks the kind of questions he is able to answer.
2
I visited agents, knocked at producers' doors; no one was interested. I was just another stage actor on tour, on the outside of Hollywood looking in. I returned to New York depressed and disappointed.
3
[asked if The Story of Mankind (1957) was based on a book] Yes. But they are using only the notes on the dust jacket.
4
Why should I go to dull parties and say dull things just because I wear greasepaint and make love to beautiful women on the screen?
5
I loathe war. I'm inclined to be bitter about the politics of munitions and real estate, which are the reasons of war. It certainly taught me to value the quiet life and strengthened my conviction that to keep as far out of range of vision as possible is to to be as safe as possible.
6
I persevered in those English films, and persevered is the word, though I am the first to admit that I was a very bad actor in them.
7
Whenever I hear of young actors down and out and broke in New York (and what a cliché of show business it is supposed to be!), I remember my own experiences in 1921 - and find it no laughing matter by any criterion.
8
They talk of the artist finding liberation in work, it is true. One can be someone else in another, more dramatic, more beautiful world.
9
[to his agent] Before God I'm worth 35 dollars a week. Before the motion picture industry I'm worth anything you can get.
10
Fame has robbed me of my freedom and shut me up in prison, and because the prison walls are gilded, and the key that locks me in is gold, does not make it any more tolerable.
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Fact
1
He was lined up to play the leading role in a proposed MGM film based on John Wyndham's novel "The Midwich Cuckoos" when illness and then death overcame him. MGM did make a film of this book two years after his death, when his role was taken over by George Sanders - who had, in the meantime, also married Colman's widow, Benita Hume.
2
His Shakespearean acting for the scenes from "Othello" in A Double Life (1947) was coached by Walter Hampden.
3
Colman's Oscar statuette sold for $206,250 when it was auctioned by Nate D. Sanders Memorabilia on February 28, 2012.
4
He, along with wife Benita Hume, was a frequent guest on Jack Benny's radio show. The Colmans were supposed to be next-door neighbors. After Colman won his Oscar, Jack borrowed it to take home only to be robbed and the Oscar taken. For several weeks the show's story line was the recovery of the stolen Oscar.
When he made his mark in Hollywood as a handsome young silent actor, there were some who doubted he would translate well to "talkies." His subsequent success in radio (he made a multi-volume recording of the William Shakespeare sonnets, as well) proved them wrong with a vengeance.
7
In his early film career he was panned by many critics for his overtheatrics (used in the stage work he was doing at the time) and his pronounced limp (from a bad war injury). He credited working with greats such as George Arliss for overcoming those obstacles.
8
Fought with the British Army in World War I, and was wounded during the Battle of Ypres.
9
His recording of "A Christmas Carol", originally released in a Decca 78-RPM set in 1941, was the first recorded version to win wide acclaim. It appeared several times on LP, and has recently (October 2005) been released on CD by Deutsche Grammophon, along with its frequent companion piece on LP, "Mr. Pickwick's Christmas".
10
He made his film debut in an unreleased two-reel short made in 1919. Its title is unknown, and references to it as 'Live Wire, The (1917)' apparently erroneously connect it to a play of that title in which Colman appeared around the same time.
$14 Million
