Ronald Colman

He made his film debut in an unreleased two-reel short made in 1919. Its title is unknown, and references to it as 'Live Wire, The (1917)' apparently erroneously connect it to a play of that title in which Colman appeared around the same time.

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 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 appeared in three films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Lady Windermere's Fan (1925), Lost Horizon (1937) and The Prisoner of Zenda (1937).

Appeared in six Oscar Best Picture nominees: Arrowsmith (1931), A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Lost Horizon (1937), The Talk of the Town (1942), Random Harvest (1942) and Around the World in 80 Days (1956), with the last of these the only winner.

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).

Ronald Colman was originally considered for the leading role of "Wade Rawlins" in the Hal Roach/MGM Picture "Merrily We Live" (1938). The role eventually went to Brian Aherne.

His recording of "A Christmas Carol", originally released in a Decca 78-RPM set in 1941, was the first recorded version to win wide acclaim. It appeared several times on LP, and has recently (October 2005) been released on CD by Deutsche Grammophon, along with its frequent companion piece on LP, "Mr. Pickwick's Christmas".

A decade later he received an Academy Award for his splendid portrayal of a tormented actor in A Double Life (1947).

Mentioned in "The Jack Benny Program" (1950) {How Jack Found Mary (#5.3)}/.

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).

Colman had been troubled with fibrosis of the lung since a pneumonia attack during World War I. He never fully recovered from a lung infection which kept him in St. John's Hospital, Santa Monica, for three weeks in March 1956.

Colman's Oscar statuette sold for $206,250 when it was auctioned by Nate D. Sanders Memorabilia on February 28, 2012.