Ronald Colman

Known for ActingBorn 1891-02-08Died 1958-05-19 Richmond, Surrey, England, UK

British leading man of primarily American films, one of the great stars of the Golden Age. Raised in Ealing, the son of a successful silk merchant, he attended boarding school in Sussex, where he first discovered amateur theatre. He intended to attend Cambridge and become an engineer, but his father's death cost him the financial support necessary. He joined the London Scottish Regionals and at the outbreak of World War I was sent to France. Seriously wounded at the battle of Messines--he was gassed--he was invalided out of service scarcely two months after shipping out for France. Upon his recovery he tried to enter the consular service, but a chance encounter got him a small role in a London play. He dropped other plans and concentrated on the theatre, and was rewarded with a succession of increasingly prominent parts. He made extra money appearing in a few minor films, and in 1920 set out for New York in hopes of finding greater fortune there than in war-depressed England. After two years of impoverishment he was cast in a Broadway hit, "La Tendresse". Director Henry King spotted him in the show and cast him as Lillian Gish's leading man in The White Sister (1923). His success in the film led to a contract with Samuel Goldwyn, and his career as a Hollywood leading man was underway. He became a vastly popular star of silent films, in romances as well as adventure films. The coming of sound made his extraordinarily beautiful speaking voice even more important to the film industry. He played sophisticated, thoughtful characters of integrity with enormous aplomb, and swashbuckled expertly when called to do so in films like The Prisoner of Zenda (1937). A decade later he received an Academy Award for his splendid portrayal of a tormented actor in A Double Life (1947). Much of his later career was devoted to "The Halls of Ivy", a radio show that later was transferred to television "The Halls of Ivy" (1954). He continued to work until nearly the end of his life, which came in 1958 after a brief lung illness. He was survived by his second wife, actress Benita Hume, and their daughter Juliet Benita Colman.Read more

Movies & web series

His Supreme Moment

Twenty Dollars a Week

The Black Spider

Goldwyn: The Man and His Movies

Two Lovers

Handcuffs or Kisses

Anna the Adventuress

The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind

The Jack Benny Program

Governor C.C. Young Hails Greater Talkie Season

Terra Melophon Magazin Nr. 1

The Dark Angel

Tarnish

The Toilers

Kiki

The Prisoner of Zenda

Champagne for Caesar

The Rescue

That's Entertainment, Part II

The Talk of the Town

Random Harvest

The Halls of Ivy

If I Were King

The Art Director

The Late George Apley

The White Sister

Lost Horizon

General Electric Theater

Stella Dallas

Four Star Playhouse

The Ed Sullivan Show

The Night of Love

Around the World in 80 Days

A Tale of Two Cities

My Life with Caroline

Under Two Flags

The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo

Lady Windermere's Fan

The Unholy Garden

Her Night of Romance

The Sporting Venus

Arrowsmith

Condemned!

Romola

A Double Life

Bulldog Drummond

The Winning of Barbara Worth

A Thief in Paradise