McDowall, Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude

▪ 1999

      British-born actor (b. Sept. 17, 1928, London, Eng.—d. Oct. 3, 1998, Los Angeles, Calif.), was a child star who defied the odds against continued success and went on to adult acclaim as a versatile performer. His career lasted more than 60 years, during which he made some 130 motion pictures, as well as stage and television appearances, and also became an accomplished photographer, with five books of his photos published. McDowall was encouraged to act by his mother, who had once had similar ambitions for herself, and he had already appeared in a number of movies by the time he moved with his mother and sister to the U.S. in 1940 during the London Blitz. Shortly thereafter he was screen-tested for a part in How Green Was My Valley (1941), which became his first big success and paved the way for prominent roles in such children's classics as My Friend Flicka (1943), its sequel, Thunderhead—Son of Flicka (1945), and Lassie Come Home (1943). His costar in the latter was Elizabeth Taylor, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship. Although McDowall appeared in the stage and film versions of Orson Welles's Macbeth in the late 1940s, directors still tended to think of him as a child. He therefore moved to New York City, took acting lessons, and performed onstage and on television. In 1957 he starred on Broadway in Compulsion, a drama based on the Leopold-Loeb murder case, in what became his favourite stage role, Artie Strauss (the Loeb counterpart), and in 1960 he won both a Tony award for The Fighting Cock and an Emmy for the TV drama "Not Without Honour." Later in 1960 he opened in the Broadway production of Camelot, portraying an effectively sneering Mordred. At about that same time, McDowall began making movies again, appearing in such films as The Longest Day (1962) and Cleopatra (1963) before finding new fame as a talking ape in Planet of the Apes (1968) and three of its four sequels. His performance in those films and a TV series spin-off gained him a cult following. Other films included The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Funny Lady (1975), and Fright Night (1985).

* * *