91-629: Charles Laughton ( / ˈ l ɔː t ə n / ; 1 July 1899 – 15 December 1962) was a British and American actor. He was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and first appeared professionally on the stage in 1926. In 1927, he was cast in a play with his future wife Elsa Lanchester , with whom he lived and worked until his death. Laughton played a wide range of classical and modern roles, making an impact in Shakespeare at
182-429: A Grammy in 1962 for Best Spoken Word Recording . Although the album has yet to be released on compact disc, it can now be heard in its entirety online. Laughton was the fill-in host on 9 September 1956, when Elvis Presley made his first of three appearances on CBS 's The Ed Sullivan Show , which garnered 60.7 million viewers ( Ed Sullivan was recuperating from a car accident). That same year, Laughton hosted
273-721: A Bible-reading pastor in the multi-story A Miracle Can Happen (1947), but his piece wound up being cut and replaced with another featuring Dorothy Lamour , and in this form the film was retitled as On Our Merry Way . However, an original print of A Miracle Can Happen was sent abroad for dubbing before the Laughton sequence was deleted, and in this form it was shown in Spain as Una Encuesta Llamada Milagro . Laughton made his first colour film in Paris as Inspector Maigret in The Man on
364-483: A Day , wrote: "Is there no-one at RKO to tell Charles Laughton when he is being plain bad?" On the other hand, Bosley Crowther of The New York Times declared that Forever and a Day boasted "superb performances". C. A. Lejeune , wrote Callow, was "shocked" by the poor quality of Laughton's work of that period: "One of the most painful screen phenomena of latter years", she wrote in The Observer , "has been
455-407: A Pelican LP. A two-LP Capitol Records album was released in 1962, the year of Laughton's death, entitled The Story Teller: A Session with Charles Laughton . Taken from Laughton's one-man stage shows, it compiles dramatic readings from several sources. Three of the excerpts are broadcast annually on a Minnesota Public Radio Thanksgiving program entitled Giving Thanks . The Story Teller won
546-580: A South Seas patriarch in The Tuttles of Tahiti (1942); and a US admiral during World War II in Stand By for Action (1942). He played a Victorian butler in Forever and a Day (1943) and an Australian bar-owner in The Man from Down Under (1943). Simon Callow 's 1987 biography quotes a number of contemporary reviews of Laughton's performances in these films. James Agate , reviewing Forever and
637-844: A bloodthirsty pirate in Captain Kidd (1945) and a malevolent judge in Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case (1947). Laughton played a megalomaniac press tycoon in The Big Clock (1948). He had supporting roles as a Nazi in pre-war Paris in Arch of Triumph (1948), as a bishop in The Girl from Manhattan (1948), as a seedy go-between in The Bribe (1949), and as a kindly widower in The Blue Veil (1951). He played
728-613: A body of work published as a book, Off Stage: 100 Portraits Celebrating the RADA Centenary , in 2005 to celebrate RADA's centenary. The photographs include John Hurt , Alan Rickman , Sheila Hancock , Sir Anthony Hopkins , Ralph Fiennes , Edward Woodward , Sir Ian Holm , Richard Attenborough , Joan Collins , Tom Courtenay , Warren Mitchell , Imelda Staunton , June Whitfield , Richard Briers , Glenda Jackson , Juliet Stevenson , Jonathan Pryce , Kenneth Branagh , Ioan Gruffud , Susannah York and Timothy Spall . In 2011,
819-520: A box office. RADA accepts up to 28 new students each year into its three-year BA (Hons) in Acting course, with a 50–50 split of male and female students. Admission into the three-year BA (Hons) in Acting course is based on suitability and successful audition, via the four-stage audition process, spanning several months. Auditions are held in London as well as in New York, Los Angeles, Dublin, and across
910-406: A brief appearance as a disgruntled diner in another silent film Piccadilly with Anna May Wong in 1929. He appeared with Lanchester again in a "film revue," featuring assorted British variety acts, called Comets (1930) in which they sang a duet, "The Ballad of Frankie and Johnnie." He made two other early British talkies: Wolves with Dorothy Gish (1930) from a play set in a whaling camp in
1001-641: A brief impression of Laughton's Captain Bligh. Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art , also known by its abbreviation RADA ( / ˈ r ɑː d ə / ), is a drama school in London , England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre , film , television , and radio . It is based in Bloomsbury , Central London , close to the Senate House complex of
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#17327795117501092-623: A capacity of up to 50. In January 2012, RADA acquired the lease to the adjacent Drill Hall venue in Chenies Street and renamed it RADA Studios . The Drill Hall is a Grade II listed building with a long performing arts history, and was where Nijinsky rehearsed with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 1911. This venue has a 200-seat space, the Studio Theatre, and a 50-seat space, the Club Theatre. In April 2016, planning permission
1183-545: A cinema. The school's principal industry partner is Warner Bros. Entertainment . RADA offers a number of foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Its higher education awards are validated by King's College London (KCL). The royal patron of the school is King Charles III , following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. The president is David Harewood , who succeeded Kenneth Branagh in February 2024, with Cynthia Erivo appointed vice president. The chairman
1274-547: A fellow resident. Moved with compassion, Pickwick forgives him and charitably bails him out and later arranges for Jingle and his servant Job Trotter to pursue their fortune in the West Indies . When Mrs. Bardell herself is sent to the Fleet Prison Pickwick learns that the only way he can relieve her suffering is by paying her costs in the action against himself, thus at the same time releasing himself from
1365-399: A friend and co-star of Laughton, disputed the contention that his sexuality was the reason Laughton and Lanchester did not have children, saying Laughton told her he had wanted children but that it had not been possible because of a botched abortion that Lanchester had early in her career of performing burlesque . In her autobiography, Lanchester acknowledged two abortions in her youth – one of
1456-504: A full-length stage dramatisation by Herman Wouk of the court-martial scene in Wouk's novel The Caine Mutiny . The play, starring Henry Fonda as defence attorney Barney Greenwald, opened the same year as the film starring Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg and José Ferrer as Greenwald based on the original novel, but did not affect that film's box-office performance. Laughton also directed
1547-807: A guest appearance on the Colgate Comedy Hour (featuring Abbott and Costello ), in which he delivered the Gettysburg Address . In 1953 he played Herod Antipas in Salome , and he reprised his role as Henry VIII in Young Bess , a 1953 drama about Henry's children. He returned to Britain to star in Hobson's Choice (1954), directed by David Lean . Laughton received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for his role in Witness for
1638-610: A legal suit against Pickwick. During the trial at the Guildhall Sittings in London before Mr. Justice Stareleigh, Mr. Serjeant Buzfuz prosecutes Pickwick and bullies the witnesses into giving incriminating testimony, leading to Pickwick being falsely convicted. The height of Pickwick's moral and spiritual development occurs at the Fleet Prison where he is imprisoned for refusing to pay Mrs Bardell's damages and costs. Here Pickwick encounters his nemesis Alfred Jingle as
1729-744: A local boys' school, Scarborough College , before sending him to Stonyhurst College , the pre-eminent English Jesuit school. Laughton served in World War I , during which he was gassed , serving first with the 2/1st Battalion of the Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion , and then with the 7th Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment . He started work in the family hotel, though also participating in amateur theatrical productions in Scarborough. He
1820-717: A musical in 1945 by Rodgers and Hammerstein as Carousel , where Ficsur became Jigger Craigin, but Laughton never appeared in the musical version). While Laughton is most remembered for his film career, he continued to work in the theatre, as when, after the success of The Private Life of Henry VIII he appeared at the Old Vic Theatre in 1933 as Macbeth , Lopakin in The Cherry Orchard , Prospero in The Tempest and Angelo in Measure for Measure . In
1911-472: A penetrating, theatre-filling shout and a soft, velvety tone, first appeared on 78-rpm records with the release of five British Regal Zonophone 10-inch discs entitled Voice of the Stars issued annually from 1934 to 1938. These featured short soundtrack snippets from the year's top films. He is heard on all five records in, respectively, The Private Life of Henry VIII , The Barretts of Wimpole Street , Mutiny on
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#17327795117502002-544: A reading of the Nativity story from St. Luke's Gospel , and this was released in 1995 on CD on a Nimbus Records collection entitled Prima Voce: The Spirit of Christmas Past . A Brunswick/American Decca LP entitled Readings from the Bible featured Laughton reading Garden of Eden, The Fiery Furnace, Noah's Ark, and David and Goliath. It was released in 1958. Laughton had previously included several Bible readings when he played
2093-632: A relationship with Elsa Lanchester , at the time a castmate in a stage play. The two were married in 1929, became US citizens in 1950, and remained together until Laughton's death. Over the years, they appeared together in several films, including Rembrandt (1936), Tales of Manhattan (1942), The Vessel of Wrath (1938), and The Big Clock (1948). Lanchester portrayed Anne of Cleves , Henry VIII's fourth wife, opposite Laughton in The Private Life of Henry VIII . They both received Academy Award nominations for their performances in Witness for
2184-733: A relevant scene for the film. Laughton played a henpecked husband who eventually murders his wife in The Suspect (1944), directed by Robert Siodmak , who would become a good friend. He played sympathetically an impoverished composer-pianist in Tales of Manhattan (1942) and starred in The Canterville Ghost , based on the Oscar Wilde story in 1944. Laughton appeared in two comedies with Deanna Durbin , It Started with Eve (1941) and Because of Him (1946). He portrayed
2275-439: A servant ( Sam Weller ), expressing the view that three may eat as cheaply as two, she mistakes this for a marriage proposal and accepting his 'offer', much to his dismay, faints into his arms, possibly deliberately, as his three friends Winkle , Snodgrass and Tupman walk through the door and witness the scene: When Pickwick refuses to marry her Mrs Bardell is persuaded by the unscrupulous lawyers Dodson and Fogg into bringing
2366-721: A staged reading in 1953 of Stephen Vincent Benét 's John Brown's Body , a full-length poem about the American Civil War and its aftermath. The production starred Tyrone Power , Raymond Massey (re-creating his film characterisations of Abraham Lincoln and John Brown ), and Judith Anderson . Laughton did not appear himself in either production, but John Brown's Body was recorded complete by Columbia Masterworks. He directed and starred in George Bernard Shaw 's, Major Barbara which ran on Broadway from approximately 1 November 1956, to 18 May 1957. Others in
2457-526: A twenty-minute version of the Christmas chapter from Dickens's The Pickwick Papers . It was first released by American Decca in 1944 as a four-record 78-rpm set, but was afterward transferred to LP. It frequently appeared on LP with a companion piece, Decca's 1941 adaptation of Dickens's A Christmas Carol , starring Ronald Colman as Scrooge. Both stories were released together on a Deutsche Grammophon CD for Christmas 2005. In 1943, Laughton recorded
2548-704: A year with a 50–50 gender balance, with the option to interview in Manchester and Plymouth. RADA’s postgraduate training currently comprises a MA Theatre Lab programme and a Postgraduate Diploma in Theatre Costume (both validated by King's College London). RADA also jointly teaches an MA in Text and Performance with Birkbeck, University of London, where students on this course are enrolled at RADA as well as registered at Birkbeck. Both MA courses frequently collaborated according to their specialisms (i.e. directors on
2639-610: A £22.7 million grant from the Arts Council National Lottery Board in 1996, which was used to renovate its premises and rebuild the Jerwood Vanbrugh Theatre. In 2000, the academy founded RADA Enterprises Ltd, now known as RADA Business, providing training programmes and coaching for organisations and individuals in communications and team building which use drama training techniques in a business context. The profits are fed back into
2730-577: Is Marcus Ryder, who succeeded Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen in 2021. Its vice-chairman was Alan Rickman until his death in 2016. The current principal of the academy is Niamh Dowling, who succeeded Edward Kemp in 2022. The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art was founded on 25 April 1904 by actor-manager Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree (the grandfather of actor Oliver Reed ) at the West End 's Her Majesty's Theatre (now His Majesty's) situated in Haymarket in
2821-591: Is a retired successful businessman and is the founder and chairman of the Pickwick Club, a club formed to explore places remote from London and investigate the quaint and curious phenomena of life found there. Mr Pickwick is believed to have been named after the British businessman Eleazer Pickwick (c.1749–1837). Although he is the main character in The Pickwick Papers , Samuel Pickwick
Charles Laughton - Misplaced Pages Continue
2912-586: Is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London. The main RADA building where classes and rehearsals take place is on Gower Street (with a second entrance on Malet Street ), with a second premise nearby in Chenies Street where RADA Studios is located. The Goodge Street and Euston Square underground stations are both within walking distance. The Gower and Malet Street building was redeveloped in
3003-485: Is mostly a passive and innocent figure in the story around whom the other more active characters operate. Having an almost childlike simplicity, Pickwick is loyal and protective toward his friends but is often hoodwinked by conmen and poseurs; he can be quick to anger when confronted by the actions of tricksters such as Alfred Jingle . He is always gallant towards women, young and old, but can also be indecisive in his dealings with them. Dickens develops Pickwick's character as
3094-564: The City of Westminster , London. In 1905, RADA moved to 62 Gower Street, and a managing council was set up to oversee the school. Its members included George Bernard Shaw , who later donated his royalties from his play Pygmalion to RADA and gave lectures to students at the school. In 1920, RADA was granted a royal charter and, in 1921, a new theatre was built on Malet Street behind the Gower Street buildings. Edward, Prince of Wales, opened
3185-743: The Comédie-Française as Sganarelle in the second act of Molière 's Le Médecin malgré lui , the first English actor to appear at that theatre, where he performed the role in French and received an ovation. Laughton commenced his film career in Great Britain while still acting on the London stage. He also accepted small roles in three short silent comedies starring his wife Elsa Lanchester , Daydreams, Blue Bottles, and The Tonic (all 1928), which had been specially written for her by H. G. Wells and were directed by Ivor Montagu . He made
3276-618: The New York Film Critics' Circle Awards for Mutiny on the Bounty and Ruggles of Red Gap in 1935. Academy Awards For his contributions to the motion picture industry, Laughton has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard. Laughton guest starred in a few television shows. Warner Brothers made three cartoons parodying Laughton's acting: In Buccaneer Bunny (1948), Bugs Bunny does
3367-653: The Old Vic . His film career took him to Broadway and then Hollywood, but he also collaborated with Alexander Korda on notable British films of the era, including The Private Life of Henry VIII , for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the title character . He received two further nominations for his roles in Mutiny on the Bounty and Witness for the Prosecution , and reprised
3458-672: The Senate House complex of the University of London . It is a founder member of the Federation of Drama Schools. RADA has expanded its course offering over the years. The school offers a three-year BA (Hons) in acting degree. The first stage management course was introduced in 1962 under the directorship of Dorothy Tenham , and today students on the technical theatre and stage management degree learn theatre production skills including lighting, sound, props, costume and make-up, stage management, production management and video design. In
3549-636: The University of London , and is a founding member of the Federation of Drama Schools . RADA is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, founded in 1904 by Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . It moved to buildings on Gower Street in 1905. It was granted a royal charter in 1920 and a new theatre was built on Malet Street, behind the Gower Street buildings, which was opened in 1921 by Edward, Prince of Wales . It received its first government subsidy in 1924. RADA currently has five theatres and
3640-546: The 1990s it launched a programme of short courses for actors and theatre technicians from around the world, including a special course for students at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts . Other courses include a one-year acting foundation course introduced in 2007; an MA in Text & Performance, affiliated with Birkbeck, University of London , introduced in 2010; and an MA Theatre Lab course introduced in 2011. RADA
3731-588: The Bounty (1935) as Captain William Bligh , co-starring with Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian ; and Ruggles of Red Gap (1935) as the very English butler transported to early 1900s America. He signed to play Micawber in David Copperfield (1934), but after a few days' shooting asked to be released from the role and was replaced by W. C. Fields . Back in the UK, and again with Korda, he played
Charles Laughton - Misplaced Pages Continue
3822-460: The Bounty , I, Claudius (curiously, since this film was unfinished and thus never released), and Vessel of Wrath . In 1937 he recorded Lincoln's Gettysburg Address on a 10-inch Columbia 78, having made a strong impression with it in Ruggles of Red Gap . He made several other spoken-word recordings, one of his most famous being his one-man album of Charles Dickens 's Mr. Pickwick's Christmas ,
3913-692: The Deep with Tallulah Bankhead , Gary Cooper and Cary Grant , and followed this with his best-remembered film role of that year as Nero in Cecil B. DeMille 's The Sign of the Cross . Laughton gave other memorable performances during that first Hollywood trip, repeating his stage role as a murderer in Payment Deferred , playing H. G. Wells ' mad vivisectionist Dr. Moreau in Island of Lost Souls , and
4004-402: The Eiffel Tower (1949) and, wrote the Monthly Film Bulletin , "appeared to overact" alongside Boris Karloff as a mad French nobleman in a version of Robert Louis Stevenson 's The Strange Door in 1951. He played a tramp in O. Henry's Full House (1952). He became the pirate Captain Kidd again, this time for comic effect, in Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952). Laughton made
4095-473: The Hunter , starring Robert Mitchum , Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish , and produced by his friend Paul Gregory . The film has been cited among critics as one of the best of the 1950s, and has been selected by the United States National Film Registry for preservation in the Library of Congress. At the time of its original release it was a critical and box-office failure, and Laughton never directed again. The documentary Charles Laughton Directs The Night of
4186-403: The Hunter by Robert Gitt (2002) features preserved rushes and outtakes with Laughton's audible off-camera direction. Laughton had intended to follow up The Night of the Hunter with an adaptation of Norman Mailer 's The Naked and the Dead . Terry and Dennis Sanders were hired as writers, and press releases announced that Robert Mitchum was to star and that Walter Schumann would compose
4277-400: The Lir Academy was established in association with RADA at Trinity College Dublin , with the partnership of the Cathal Ryan Trust. Following RADA’s conservatoire-style, practical theatre training, the Lir Academy modelled its courses after the London-based school. RADA has been registered with the Office for Students as a higher education institution since July 2018. The current principal of
4368-411: The Prosecution (1957). He played a British admiral in Under Ten Flags (1960) and worked with Laurence Olivier in Spartacus (1960). His final film was Advise & Consent (1962), for which he received favourable comments for his performance as a Southern US Senator (for which accent he studied recordings of Mississippi Senator John C. Stennis ). In 1955, Laughton directed The Night of
4459-448: The Prosecution (1957)—Laughton for Best Actor, and Lanchester for Best Supporting Actress—but neither won. Laughton's bisexuality was corroborated by several of his contemporaries and is generally accepted by Hollywood historians. Hollywood procurer and prostitute Scotty Bowers alleged in his memoir Full Service that Laughton was in love with Tyrone Power and that his sex life was exclusively homosexual. Actress Maureen O'Hara ,
4550-460: The RADA Shakespeare Awards. Undergraduate students are eligible for government student loans. RADA also has a scholarships and bursaries scheme, which offers financial assistance to students. The Royal Patron of the Academy is King Charles III , following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. The President is David Harewood , since February 2024. The chairman is Marcus Ryder, who succeeded Sir Stephen Waley-Cohen in 2021. Its vice-chairman
4641-639: The Text & Performance programme using actors from the Theatre Lab course). Rehearsals and performances for the programmes are done mostly in the Chenies Street and Malet Street buildings. In addition, RADA offers a series of short courses, masterclasses and summer courses for a range of standards and ages. Previous attendees have included Allison Janney , Liev Schreiber , Maggie Gyllenhaal and Emma Watson . The Academy’s education, widening participation and outreach work includes two Youth Companies, schools' workshops, Access to Acting workshops for young disabled people, Shakespeare tours to secondary schools and
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#17327795117504732-519: The UK – in recent years this has included Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Chester, Leicester, Sheffield, Manchester, Newcastle and Plymouth. Free auditions are offered to any applicants with a household income of under £25,000. RADA also teaches Technical Theatre & Stage Management (TTSM) – a two-year foundation degree and with a further 'completion' year to BA level which has to be separately applied for and which allows for specialisation in all theatre craft areas. The TTSM course admits up to 30 students
4823-481: The UK, which produced three films starring Laughton: Vessel of Wrath (US title The Beachcomber ) (1938), based on a story by W. Somerset Maugham , in which his wife, Elsa Lanchester, co-starred; St. Martin's Lane (US title Sidewalks of London ), about London street entertainers, which featured Vivien Leigh and Rex Harrison ; and Jamaica Inn , with Maureen O'Hara and Robert Newton , about Cornish shipwreckers, based on Daphne du Maurier 's novel, and
4914-544: The US, Laughton worked with Bertolt Brecht on a new English version of Brecht's play Galileo . Laughton played the title role at the play's premiere in Los Angeles on 30 July 1947 and later that year in New York. This staging was directed by Joseph Losey . The processes by which Laughton painstakingly, over many weeks, created his Galileo—and incidentally, edited and translated the play along with Brecht—are detailed in an essay by Brecht, "Building Up A Part: Laughton's Galileo." Laughton had one of his most notable successes in
5005-424: The academy to help cover its costs. In 2001, RADA joined with the London Contemporary Dance School to create the UK's first Conservatoire for Dance and Drama (CDD). RADA left the CDD in August 2019 to become an independent higher education provider. RADA is also a founder member of the Federation of Drama Schools , established in 2017. In 2004, celebrity photographer Cambridge Jones was commissioned to create
5096-435: The academy, Niamh Dowling, succeeded Edward Kemp in 2022. The current president, David Harewood , succeeded Kenneth Branagh in February 2024, with Cynthia Erivo appointed vice president. RADA's higher education awards are validated by King's College London (KCL) and its students graduate alongside members of the KCL Faculty of Arts & Humanities . It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London , close to
5187-401: The bald head, and circular spectacles, which were intently turned towards his (the secretary’s) face, during the reading of the above resolutions: to those who knew that the gigantic brain of Pickwick was working beneath that forehead, and that the beaming eyes of Pickwick were twinkling behind those glasses, the sight was indeed an interesting one. There sat the man who had traced to their source
5278-578: The cast were Glynis Johns , Burgess Meredith , Cornelia Otis Skinner , and Eli Wallach . Laughton returned to the London stage in May 1958 to direct and star in Jane Arden 's The Party at the New Theatre which also had Elsa Lanchester and Albert Finney in the cast. He made his final appearances on stage as Nick Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream , and as King Lear at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1959, although failing health resulted in both performances being disappointing, according to some British critics. His performance as King Lear
5369-502: The decline and fall of Charles Laughton." On the other hand, David Shipman , in his book The Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years , said "Laughton was a total actor. His range was wide". Laughton played a cowardly schoolmaster in occupied France in This Land is Mine (1943), by Jean Renoir , in which he engaged himself most actively; in fact, while Renoir was still working on an early script, Laughton would talk about Alphonse Daudet 's story "The Last Lesson", which suggested to Renoir
5460-426: The end of the novel Pickwick looks upon Sam Weller almost as a son, a feeling which is reciprocated by Sam. Another sub-plot in the novel is the romantic misunderstanding between Pickwick and his landlady Mrs Bardell that results in one of the most famous legal cases in English literature, the breach of promise to marry suit Bardell v. Pickwick . When Pickwick discusses with Mrs Bardell his idea of taking
5551-501: The expression—inspired involuntary awe and respect. To extend his researches into the quaint and curious phenomena of life, Pickwick creates the Pickwick Club and suggests that he and three other "Pickwickians" (Mr Nathaniel Winkle , Mr Augustus Snodgrass and Mr Tracy Tupman ) should make journeys to places remote from London and report on their findings to the other members of the club. Pickwick careens from one comic disaster to another in pursuit of adventure or honour attended by
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#17327795117505642-411: The first of two programmes devoted to classical music entitled "Festival of Music", and telecast on the NBC television anthology series Producers' Showcase . One of his last performances was on Checkmate , in which he played a missionary recently returned from China. He threw himself into the role, travelling to China for several months to better understand his character. In 1927, Laughton began
5733-457: The following few years and his earliest successes on the stage were as Hercule Poirot in Alibi (1928); he was the first actor to portray the Belgian detective in this stage adaptation of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd , and as William Marble in Payment Deferred , making his Lyceum Theatre (New York) debut in 1931. In 1926, he played the role of the criminal Ficsur in the original London production of Ferenc Molnár 's Liliom (The play became
5824-441: The frozen north, and Down River (1931), in which he played a drug-smuggling ship's captain. His New York stage debut in 1931 immediately led to film offers, and Laughton's first Hollywood film, The Old Dark House (1932) with Boris Karloff , in which he played a bluff Yorkshire businessman marooned during a storm with other travelers in a creepy remote Welsh manor. He then played a demented submarine commander in Devil and
5915-410: The last film Alfred Hitchcock directed in Britain before moving to Hollywood in the late 1930s. The films produced were not commercially successful enough, and the company was rescued from bankruptcy only when RKO Pictures offered Laughton the title role ( Quasimodo ) in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), with Jamaica Inn co-star O'Hara. Laughton and Pommer had plans to make further films, but
6006-477: The last role across the Atlantic and made his United States debut on 24 September 1931, at the Lyceum Theatre . He returned to London for the 1933–34 Old Vic season and was engaged in four Shakespeare roles (as Macbeth, Henry VIII, Angelo in Measure for Measure and Prospero in The Tempest ) and also as Lopakhin in The Cherry Orchard , Canon Chasuble in The Importance of Being Earnest , and Tattle in Love for Love . In 1936, he went to Paris and on 9 May appeared at
6097-423: The late 1990s to designs by Bryan Avery , and incorporated the new theatres and linking the entrances on both streets. RADA has five theatres and a cinema. In the Malet Street building, the Jerwood Vanburgh Theatre is the largest performance space with a capacity of 194; the George Bernard Shaw Theatre is a black box theatre with a capacity of up to 70; and the Gielgud Theatre is an intimate studio theatre with
6188-410: The lead role as Harry Hegan in the world premiere of Seán O'Casey 's The Silver Tassie in 1928 in London. He played the title roles in Arnold Bennett's Mr Prohack ( Elsa Lanchester was also in the cast) and as Samuel Pickwick in Mr. Pickwick at the Theatre Royal (1928–29) in London. He played Tony Perelli in Edgar Wallace 's On the Spot and William Marble in Payment Deferred . He took
6279-479: The meek raspberry-blowing clerk in the brief segment of If I Had A Million , directed by Ernst Lubitsch . He appeared in six Hollywood films in 1932. His association with director Alexander Korda began in 1933 with the hugely successful The Private Life of Henry VIII (loosely based on the life of King Henry VIII ), for which Laughton won the Academy Award for Best Actor . After his smashing success in The Private Life of Henry VIII , Laughton soon abandoned
6370-432: The mighty ponds of Hampstead, and agitated the scientific world with his Theory of Tittlebats ... The eloquent Pickwick, with one hand gracefully concealed behind his coat tails, and the other waving in air to assist his glowing declamation; his elevated position revealing those tights and gaiters, which, had they clothed an ordinary man, might have passed without observation, but which, when Pickwick clothed them—if we may use
6461-453: The novel evolved from the original concept of the Pickwick Club , a series of comic " cockney sporting plates" by illustrator Robert Seymour . The subsequent suicide of Seymour early in the publication afforded Dickens the opportunity to change both the course of the novel and the character of Pickwick. In Chapter One of The Pickwick Papers Dickens describes Pickwick: A casual observer might possibly have remarked nothing extraordinary in
6552-407: The other members of the Pickwick Club. Pickwick becomes involved in several sub-plots in the novel, including thwarting Jingle's various money-making matrimonial schemes, and assisting his friend Winkle in eloping with Arabella Allen. Pickwick encounters troubles during his adventures because, as one of nature's innocents, he is unaware of the presence of deception and tricksters such as Jingle in
6643-801: The outbreak of World War II , which implied the loss of many foreign markets, meant the end of the company. Laughton's early success in The Private Life of Henry VIII established him as one of the leading interpreters of the costume and historical drama roles for which he is best remembered (Nero, Henry VIII, Mr. Barrett, Inspector Javert, Captain Bligh, Rembrandt, Quasimodo, and others); he was also type-cast as arrogant, unscrupulous characters. He largely moved away from historical roles when he played an Italian vineyard owner in California in They Knew What They Wanted (1940);
6734-436: The piece as a staged reading and cast Charles Boyer , Cedric Hardwicke and Agnes Moorehead (billed as "The First Drama Quartette") in the other roles. Boyer won a special Tony Award for his performance. He directed several plays on Broadway, mostly under the production of his friend and Broadway producer Paul Gregory . His most notable box-office success as a director came in 1954, with The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial ,
6825-545: The pregnancies purportedly by Laughton – but did not mention infertility. According to her biographer, Charles Higham, the reason she did not have children was that she did not want any. Laughton owned an estate on the bluffs above Pacific Coast Highway at 14954 Corona Del Mar in Pacific Palisades. The property suffered a landslide in 1944, referenced by Bertolt Brecht in his poem "Garden in Progress". Laughton
6916-710: The prison. In film, television and on stage Mr Pickwick has been portrayed by: The French composer Claude Debussy dedicated to this character a humorous piano piece: Hommage à S. Pickwick Esq. P.P.M.P.C. (n. 9 of Préludes , 2 Livre , published 1913). Pickwick Island is the largest of the Pitt Islands , in the Biscoe Islands , Antarctica. It was named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) in 1959 after Samuel Pickwick, founder of
7007-401: The real world. By the end of the novel he has received an education in morality and is filled with goodness and Christian charity towards his fellow man - and woman. Always on hand to save the day is his able manservant Sam Weller ; the relationship between the idealistic and unworldly Pickwick and the astute cockney Weller has been likened to that between Don Quixote and Sancho Panza . By
7098-914: The role of Henry VIII in Young Bess . He portrayed everything from monsters and misfits to kings. Among Laughton's biggest film hits were The Barretts of Wimpole Street , Ruggles of Red Gap , Jamaica Inn , The Hunchback of Notre Dame , The Big Clock , and Spartacus . Daniel Day-Lewis cited Laughton as one of his inspirations, saying: "He was probably the greatest film actor who came from that period of time. He had something quite remarkable. His generosity as an actor; he fed himself into that work. As an actor, you cannot take your eyes off him." In his later career, Laughton took up stage directing, notably in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial , and George Bernard Shaw 's Don Juan in Hell , in which he also starred. He directed one film,
7189-580: The score. Following the box-office failure of The Night of the Hunter , Laughton was replaced by Raoul Walsh as director on the film and recruited an uncredited writer to rewrite the Sanders brothers' screenplay. Laughton also developed a remake of the 1927 silent film White Gold . Laughton made his London stage debut in Gogol's The Government Inspector (1926). He appeared in many West End plays in
7280-514: The stage for films and returned to Hollywood, where his next film was White Woman (1933) in which he co-starred with Carole Lombard as a Cockney river trader in the Malayan jungle. Then came The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934) as the malevolent father of Norma Shearer 's character (although Laughton was only three years older than Shearer); Les Misérables (1935) as Inspector Javert ; one of his most famous screen roles in Mutiny on
7371-510: The theatre by directing and playing the Devil in Don Juan in Hell beginning in 1950. The piece is actually the third act sequence from George Bernard Shaw 's play Man and Superman , frequently cut from productions to reduce its playing time, consisting of a philosophical debate between Don Juan and the Devil with contributions from Doña Ana and the statue of Ana's father. Laughton conceived
7462-478: The theatre. In 1923, Sir John Gielgud studied at RADA for a year. He later became president of the academy and its first honorary fellow. In 1924, RADA received its first government subsidy, a grant of £500. The Gower Street buildings were torn down in 1927 and replaced with a new building, financed by Bernard Shaw, who also left one-third of his royalties to the academy on his death in 1950. The academy has received other government funding at various times, including
7553-498: The thriller The Night of the Hunter , which after an initially disappointing reception is acclaimed today as a film classic. Laughton was born on 1 July 1899 in Scarborough , North Riding of Yorkshire, the son of Robert Laughton (1869–1924) and Eliza (née Conlon; 1869–1953), Yorkshire hotel keepers. A blue plaque marks his birthplace. His mother was a devout Roman Catholic of Irish descent, and she sent him to briefly attend
7644-473: The time such as Sir Squire Bancroft , William Archer , Sir Arthur Wing Pinero and George Bernard Shaw. Other facilities at RADA include acting studios, a scenic art workshop with paint frame, costume workrooms and costume store, dance and fight studios, design studios, wood and metal workshops, sound studios, rehearsal studios, and the RADA Foyer Bar, which includes a fully licensed bar, a café and
7735-458: The title role in Rembrandt (1936). In 1937, also for Korda, he starred in an ill-fated film version of the classic novel, I, Claudius , by Robert Graves , which was abandoned during filming owing to the injuries suffered by co-star Merle Oberon in a car crash. After I, Claudius , he and the expatriate German film producer Erich Pommer founded the production company Mayflower Pictures in
7826-421: The title role in the film Rembrandt . Laughton also narrated the story on the soundtrack album of the film that he directed, Night of the Hunter , accompanied by the film's score. This album has also been released on CD. Also, and derived from the film they made together, a complete radio show (18 June 1945) of The Canterville Ghost was broadcast which featured Laughton and Margaret O'Brien. It has been issued on
7917-492: Was Alan Rickman until his death in 2016. The current principal of the academy is Niamh Dowling, who succeeded Edward Kemp in 2022. Listed alphabetically by date of appointment Samuel Pickwick Samuel Pickwick is a fictional character and the main protagonist in The Pickwick Papers (1836), the first novel by author Charles Dickens . One of the author's most famous and loved creations, Pickwick
8008-609: Was a Democrat and supported the campaign of Adlai Stevenson during the 1952 presidential election . Laughton checked in to Cedars of Lebanon Hospital in July 1962 with what was described as a ruptured disc . He had surgery for the collapse of a vertebra and it was revealed he had cancer of the spine. He left the hospital at the end of November. He was in a coma for some time and died at home on 15 December 1962 from renal cancer and bladder cancer . His ashes were interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) . Laughton won
8099-538: Was granted for the redevelopment of the Chenies Street premises as part of the Richard Attenborough Campaign. The RADA library contains around 30,000 items. Works include around 10,000 plays; works of or about biography, costume, criticism, film, fine art, poetry, social history, stage design, technical theatre and theatre history; screenplays; and theatre periodicals. The collection was started in 1904 with donations from actors and writers of
8190-595: Was lambasted by critics, and Kenneth Tynan wrote that Laughton's Nick Bottom "... behaves in a manner that has nothing to do with acting, although it perfectly hits off the demeanor of a rapscallion uncle dressed up to entertain the children at a Christmas party". Although he did not appear in any later plays, Laughton toured the US with staged readings, including a successful appearance on the Stanford University campus in 1960. Laughton's voice, equally capable of
8281-585: Was permitted by his family to become a drama student at RADA in 1925, where actor Claude Rains was one of his teachers. Laughton made his first professional appearance on 28 April 1926 at the Barnes Theatre , as Osip in the comedy The Government Inspector , in which he also appeared at London's Gaiety Theatre in May. He impressed audiences with his talent and had classical roles in two Chekov plays, The Cherry Orchard and The Three Sisters . Laughton played
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