Post by teleadm on Aug 20, 2021 18:17:00 GMT
One of those many many bit part actors that you either liked, or thought "Oh! Not him!" loathed. He was one of the few English actors that actually was born in London, and while his acting persona was posh and snobbish, he did come from a non-acting family. He served in the British army during World War I and received the Military Medal and the French Croix De Guerre for bravery in action. He applied for transfer to the Royal Air Force, which was granted just six days before the war ended. Where he got the acting bug seems unclear.
Alan Mowbray (1896–1969)
After acting in London's West End, he came to the United States, where he toured the country with the Theater Guild from 1923 to 1929. On the road with the Guild, he most enjoyed acting in the plays of Noël Coward and George Bernard Shaw.
His relative lack of success on Broadway during the "Roaring Twenties" did not matter, as sound had come to Hollywood and the studios were looking for stage actors who could appear in the talkies. Blessed with excellent diction, and tall with a stiff posture and a patrician air, he was ideal for character parts in sound pictures.
A member of the "stiff-upper lip" school of British acting, he was often cast as a British, European or upper-class American gentleman, or as an aristocrat or royalty. As he became older, roles as doctors or butlers became his forte.
He made his film debut in God's Gift to Women 1931 playing a butler, a role in which he was thereafter often cast.
So often that famed 1930's novelist and screenwriter Raymond Chandler lampooned his screen persona in his pulp magazine story "Mandarin's Jade" 1937:
"The Philip Courtney Prendergasts lived on one of those wide, curving streets where the houses seem to be too close together for their size and the amount of money they represent... The house had an English slate roof and a porte-cochère, some nice imported trees, a trellis with bougainvillaea. It was a nice place and not loud. But Beverly Hills is Beverly Hills, so the butler had a wing collar and an accent like Alan Mowbray".
As no one else than George Washington in Alexander Hamilton 1931 who was played by George Arliss.
Even swashbuckling with Warren Williams in Honor of the Family 1931
Just looking as George Raft and Helen Vinson are romantic in Midnight Club 1933
With Warner Oland in Charlie Chan in London 1934
Becky Sharp 1935, as close as he got to a romantic role, with Miriam Hopkins
Rose Marie 1936, listening to Jeanette MacDonald while Herman Bing plays the piano
Stand-In 1937 with Leslie Howard
As Cosmo Topper's butler 1937 and 1938
In noir classic I Wake Up Screaming 1941, with Carol Landis and Victor Matur
Earl Carroll Vanities 1945
The touring the west Shakespeare actor in My Darling Clementine 1946
Crosswinds 1951, a John Payne action movie
In the 1950's, his film roles decreased, and he began to appear on television. He played the title role in the DuMont TV series Colonel Humphrey Flack, which first aired in 1953–54 and was revived in 1958–59.
By 1956 the roles had become rather small, like here in The King and I 1956.
His screen farewell came in A Majority of One 1961
The he went to Broadway
The poster is for a shorter engagement in Boston but the show went over a year on Broadway.
He was also one of the founders of The Hollywood Cricket Club.
He was also a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild.
Thanks for watching and comments of all kinds are welcome!
Alan Mowbray (1896–1969)
After acting in London's West End, he came to the United States, where he toured the country with the Theater Guild from 1923 to 1929. On the road with the Guild, he most enjoyed acting in the plays of Noël Coward and George Bernard Shaw.
His relative lack of success on Broadway during the "Roaring Twenties" did not matter, as sound had come to Hollywood and the studios were looking for stage actors who could appear in the talkies. Blessed with excellent diction, and tall with a stiff posture and a patrician air, he was ideal for character parts in sound pictures.
A member of the "stiff-upper lip" school of British acting, he was often cast as a British, European or upper-class American gentleman, or as an aristocrat or royalty. As he became older, roles as doctors or butlers became his forte.
He made his film debut in God's Gift to Women 1931 playing a butler, a role in which he was thereafter often cast.
So often that famed 1930's novelist and screenwriter Raymond Chandler lampooned his screen persona in his pulp magazine story "Mandarin's Jade" 1937:
"The Philip Courtney Prendergasts lived on one of those wide, curving streets where the houses seem to be too close together for their size and the amount of money they represent... The house had an English slate roof and a porte-cochère, some nice imported trees, a trellis with bougainvillaea. It was a nice place and not loud. But Beverly Hills is Beverly Hills, so the butler had a wing collar and an accent like Alan Mowbray".
As no one else than George Washington in Alexander Hamilton 1931 who was played by George Arliss.
Even swashbuckling with Warren Williams in Honor of the Family 1931
Just looking as George Raft and Helen Vinson are romantic in Midnight Club 1933
With Warner Oland in Charlie Chan in London 1934
Becky Sharp 1935, as close as he got to a romantic role, with Miriam Hopkins
Rose Marie 1936, listening to Jeanette MacDonald while Herman Bing plays the piano
Stand-In 1937 with Leslie Howard
As Cosmo Topper's butler 1937 and 1938
In noir classic I Wake Up Screaming 1941, with Carol Landis and Victor Matur
Earl Carroll Vanities 1945
The touring the west Shakespeare actor in My Darling Clementine 1946
Crosswinds 1951, a John Payne action movie
In the 1950's, his film roles decreased, and he began to appear on television. He played the title role in the DuMont TV series Colonel Humphrey Flack, which first aired in 1953–54 and was revived in 1958–59.
By 1956 the roles had become rather small, like here in The King and I 1956.
His screen farewell came in A Majority of One 1961
The he went to Broadway
The poster is for a shorter engagement in Boston but the show went over a year on Broadway.
He was also one of the founders of The Hollywood Cricket Club.
He was also a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild.
Thanks for watching and comments of all kinds are welcome!