Colman, Ronald

▪ British-American actor

in full  Ronald Charles Colman 

born February 9, 1891, Richmond, Surrey, Eng.

died May 19, 1958, Santa Barbara, Calif., U.S.

      Hollywood film actor whose screen image embodied the archetypal English gentleman. His elegant accent and polished demeanour gave voice to characters who were sophisticated yet graciously heroic, which contrasted with the rugged, action-oriented screen images of American-bred leading men.

      Though Colman showed an interest in acting at an early age, his financial responsibilities to his family prevented him from pursuing the stage as a career. During World War I he joined the London Scottish Regionals regiment; he was decorated and discharged for wounds suffered at Messines, Belgium. Free from family obligations, he pursued his interest in acting and received his first break in 1916 when Gladys Cooper selected him to play opposite her in The Misleading Lady. The following year he made his first film, a two-reel comedy called The Live Wire, though the shy, inexperienced actor was anything but what the title suggests, prompting one executive to remark, “He doesn't screen well.”

      In 1920 Colman moved to the United States in order to pursue a stage career in New York City, where his supporting performance in the 1923 Broadway play The Green Goddess attracted the attention of director Henry King and screen legend Lillian Gish (Gish, Lillian). It was Gish who insisted on Colman for her leading man in King's The White Sister (1923) and who tutored Colman on the fine points of acting for the camera. The film launched Colman's screen career in Hollywood and defined his image as a gracious, self-sacrificing hero. He became a star of the silent cinema and was teamed with Hungarian actress Vilma Banky in such films as The Dark Angel (1925), The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926), The Night of Love (1927), The Magic Flame (1927), and Two Lovers (1928). This pairing established them as a romantic screen couple who rivaled the popularity of Greta Garbo and John Gilbert. Unlike the films of Garbo and Gilbert, however, those of Colman and Banky offered no public expression of offscreen passion. In the words of writer John Baxter, “[Banky] spoke no English at all. For their love scenes in The Dark Angel, she chatted away in her own language while costar Ronald Colman chatted away about cricket.”

      Colman's success in talking pictures was assured by a resonant, mellifluous speaking voice with a unique, pleasing timbre. Though he had been a star in silent films, the screen character with which Colman is most associated—that of a well-bred, noble English adventurer—was established during the 1930s. As Charles Dickens's martyred hero Sidney Carton in the MGM production of A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Colman uttered the line that was to become associated with him: “It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done…,” though it was a role Colman was reluctant to accept as it demanded shaving his trademark mustache. He depicted idealism incarnate in Lost Horizon (1937), another trademark role. During the 1940s he attempted to break away from his image by playing into it. In Random Harvest (1942), his character suffers from a speech impediment, which capitalized on the audience's familiarity with Colman's sonorous voice. In his most significant film, A Double Life (1947), he portrayed a dashing, sophisticated stage actor—not unlike himself—who begins to live his roles offstage. For this performance, one of the last of his career, he won an Academy Award.

Additional Reading

Juliet Benita Colman, Ronald Colman: A Very Private Person (1975); Lawrence J. Quirk, The Films of Ronald Colman (1977); Sam Frank, Ronald Colman: A Bio-Bibliography (1997).

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