Ronald Charles Colman
A sonorous speaker, a genial gentleman, golden voice of Hollywood yore, an actor refined, and inherently classy - today I speak of Ronald Colman. Born Ronald Charles Colman in London's Southwest in 1891, he would be a rarity in the industry. Many silent film actors did not successfully transcend from silents unto talkies in quite the way Colman would.
For he had a most essential and coveted asset, he had unarguably one of the most delightfully dulcet and articulate voices of his day. And this would inevitably become his 'money-maker' as it were.
Precocious, Colman took an interest in amateur and repertory theatre in his school days, and although he was taken by the craft, he had little intention of pursuing theatre as a career. Initially it was Cambridge University that he set his sights on, and envisioned his life's work to be that of an engineer. Albeit, the acting bug went deeper than he anticipated and on with the stage, he went.
Mr Colman served in the military for a short while in the first World War and would be discharged after suffering severe injuries. It was not long after his return home, that he would become a jobbing actor, successfully landing substantial roles in various plays. Colman would not go unnoticed long, and in lo and behold fashion would soon secure a role in a two-reel film, director George Dewhurst's 1917 silent The Live Wire. This would be one of several two-reels that he would grace. There are no prints in existence of these movies that are part of his early canon, as they were unfortunately destroyed; ramifications of the Blitz.
In the year 1923, this would prove most fateful for the dashing Mr. C, this would be the time he would catch the eye of one of the Academy's founders and esteemed directors Henry King. King insisted that Colman play lead and opposite to silent era lovely, Miss Lillian Gish.
An effortless Colman reeled the crowd in with the otherworldly charisma he would bring as Captain Giovanni Severini in The White Sister. King's production would be the vehicle that catapulted him into the wonderful world of celluloid. Colman decided to leave the theatre on the back burner during this period,and the casting offers were coming in fast and furiously.
On the heels of his successful sojourn in silents, Colman would star as the titular detective in Samuel Goldwyn's Bulldog Drummond (1929), which would be the series first sound production. Colman would only star in one more subsequent installment of the series, as the bulk of the series would feature actor John Howard as Drummond.
One of Ronald's most memorable roles would come his way when he was a quinquagenarian, and still every bit as dapper, in Mervyn LeRoy's romantic rouser, Random Harvest, in which Colman executed one of his most inspired performances as amnesiac WWI Veteran Charles Rainier.
Colman was also naturally gifted in comedy and would alternate between the big screen and the realm of radio. In 1945, he would co-star along with actress-wife Benita Hume on OTR's popular The Jack Benny Program. Creator Don Quinn found them ever the delightful duet, and would soon cast the pair in their own series The Halls Of Ivy. A splashing success, this radio series would evolve into a television show and the couple would also both be cast for its single season run during 1954-1955.
In his life he would take home an Oscar and a Golden Globe award respectively, for 1947's A Double Life (Ruth Gordon actually co-wrote this for George Cukor) where he wowed the crowd with his astute portrayal of Anthony John, a fictional actor who lived life in the duality of his role as Othello, an Othello who could never quite leave it on the stage. He was also immortalized in Californian cement with not one, but two stars on that famed walk.
In 1958, only at the age of 67, it would be a bout of emphysema that would claim his life, but he would not leave this world quietly, for Colman was truly a voice of a generation.
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