Distantly related to Princess Diana on his mother's side, Nova Scotia-born actor David Manners, nee Rauff de Ryther Daun Acklom, came from well-to-do stock. His father ran the prestigious Tower Road boys' school Harrow House and later became a literary advisor for E.P. Dutton Publishing Co. in New York. Manners graduated from Trinity School where ...
In the 1980's, he told a film historian that horror films were his "only claim to movie fame."
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Fact
1
Manners was a gay man. In 1948, he met playwright Frederic William Mercer and the two lived together as partners for 30 years until Mercer's death in 1978.
2
He was a naturalized United States citizen.
3
He was a staunch conservative Republican.
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Writer. [1996]
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He made four films with Helen Chandler. Two of the films were made at Warner Brothers/First National and one was made at Fox. Their most famous pairing, Dracula (1931), was made at Universal.
6
In the final years of his life, he claimed that he had never seen Dracula (1931) and didn't care to. He asked that people NOT send him any videos of it.
7
Once worked at a New York art gallery and served as a cowboy guide out west.
8
After leaving films in 1936, he purchased a CineKodak 16mm movie camera and began making his own productions in and around his ranch, chronicling his life. The footage was stolen and never recovered.
9
Studio publicity tongues claimed he was a descendant of William the Conqueror.
10
Wrote spiritual novels in his later years. In 1971 he published "Look Through, An Evidence of Self Discovery."
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In 1940 he officially changed his name to David Joseph Manners and became a citizen of the US.
12
"Manners" is his mother's maiden name.
13
Earned $2,000 a week during filming of Dracula (1931), as leading man John Harker. Top-billed Bela Lugosi only earned $500 a week. However, this discrepancy is misleading. Manners was under contract to Warner Bros./First National. Studios "loaned out" their contract players to each other at rates considerably higher than the performers' weekly salaries, and kept the profit.
$1.2 Million
