Biographies: Robert Donat - Actor

Biographies

 [1 Content]

---

A British actor born in Withington, Manchester, England, United Kingdom on March 18, 1905 and died in London, England, United Kingdom on June 9, 1958 of a stroke due to a brain tumor. He received an Oscar, an NBR Award and a star on the Walk of Fame in 1960. He married two wives and had three sons. His most important works are The Citadel (1938) and Googbye, Mr. Chips (1939), and The Count of Monte Cristo (1934). He was born the fourth and youngest son of a German civil engineer from Polish Prussia and an English and German-Polish mother. He was educated at Manchester High School and left school at the age of 15, taking lessons in speaking to repair a defect in his pronunciation of English words. He worked as a secretary to his teacher to finance his recitation and acting lessons, and at the age of 16, he worked with several touring theater groups and with a theater company in Wales. He played classic Shakespeare roles and moved between several theater groups, until he moved in 1930 to London. He joined the Ambassador Theater and the London Theatre, and met film producer Alexander Korda, owner of the London Films Company, who presented him with the films Men of Tomorrow (1932) and That Night in London (1932). He succeeded all over the world and received offers from Hollywood, where he presented his movie, The Count of Monte Cristo (1934). He had chronic asthma. He worked with the MGM company and presented the movie The 39 Steps (1935) directed by Alfred Hitchcock. He refused many works because of his asthma, and he continued his theatrical work, and in 1938, he signed a contract with the British MGM company for 150,000 pounds with a commitment to submit 6 films. When the Second World War began, he focused on theatrical work, and after the war, he presented the movie Perfect Strangers (1945). His last movie was The Inn of the Sixth Happiness in 1958 with Ingrid. Bregman. He died before the film was shown.

• 3 October 2021
• Christina Aziz