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Kenneth More

 
Actor: Kenneth More
Home > Library > Entertainment & Arts > Actors
  • Born: Sep 20, 1914 in Gerrards Cross, England
  • Died: Jul 12, 1982 in London, England, UK
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '40s-'70s
  • Major Genres: Drama, Comedy
  • Career Highlights: A Night to Remember, The 39 Steps, Sink the Bismarck!
  • First Major Screen Credit: The Clouded Yellow (1950)

Biography

Briton Kenneth More had set his cap upon becoming a civil engineer, but the death of his father, which left behind a legacy of debts, ended that dream. After working as a Canadian fur trapper, More decided to give acting a try; his first professional stint was as a straight man at London's Windmill Theatre, a popular "burleycue" house specializing in smutty comics and scantily clad damsels. After serving in World War II as a naval lieutenant, More began building a reputation as a reliable leading man in both London and regional repertory. His official screen debut was 1948's Scott of the Antarctic, though he'd played bits in a brace of '30s films. With his lead performance in Genevieve (1953), More established himself as a topnotch comic actor, essaying the sort of bemused, ingenuous roles that would years later become the personal property of Hugh Grant. More won the BFA award for his performance in Doctor in the House (1954), the first of several popular Doctor comedies produced over the next decade. Despite his success in laughspinners, More's favorite role was his dramatic turn in 1955's The Deep Blue Sea. In the 1960s, More starred as Jolyon Forsyte on the international TV smash The Forsyte Saga. Amidst his many film, TV, and theatrical performances, More found time to write no fewer than three volumes of memoirs. Kenneth More's last film appearance was as a jovial King Arthur in Disney's Unidentified Flying Oddball (1979); he died three years later, of Parkinson's disease. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Kenneth More

More in the trailer of Sink the Bismarck!
Born Kenneth Gilbert More
20 September 1914(1914-09-20)
Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, England
Died 12 July 1982 (aged 67)
London, England
Spouse(s) Beryl Johnstone (1939-1946)
Mabel Barkby (1952-1968)
Angela Douglas (1968-until his death)

Kenneth Gilbert More CBE (20 September 1914 – 12 July 1982) was an English actor.

Contents

Early life

More was born in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the only son of Charles Gilbert More, a Royal Naval Air Service pilot, and Edith Winifred Watkins, the daughter of a Cardiff solicitor. He was educated at Victoria College, Jersey. He spent part of his childhood in the Channel Islands, where his father was general manager of Jersey Eastern Railways. After he left school, he followed the family tradition by training as a civil engineer. He gave up his training and worked for a while in Sainsbury's.

When More was 17, his father died and he applied to join the RAF, but failed the medical test for equilibrium. He went to Canada, intending to work as a fur trapper, but was sent back for lacking immigration papers.

Acting career

On his return, a family friend, Vivian Van Damm, took him on as assistant manager at the Windmill Theatre, where his job included spotting audience members misbehaving or using opera glasses to look at the nude players during its Revudeville variety shows.[1] He was soon promoted to playing straight man in the Revudeville comedy routines. This led to regular work in repertory, including Newcastle and Wolverhampton, performing in plays such as Burke and Hare and Dracula's Daughter. He continued this work until World War II, during which time he served as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, seeing active service aboard the cruiser HMS Aurora and the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, returning to acting in 1946. After various roles in the West End, he attracted particular attention through his performance as Freddie in Terence Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea.

In the 1950s, he entered into a contract with the Rank Organisation, which led to a successful career in starring roles for a decade. He enjoyed great success in films of the 1950s after winning a BAFTA as best newcomer for Doctor in the House in 1954. Possibly his most famous role was that of the Royal Air Force fighter ace, Douglas Bader, in Reach for the Sky in 1956. He played the lead role in the seminal Titanic movie A Night to Remember in 1958. He specialised in likeable, unflappable English heroes ("an air of hectoring confidence ... heroic in a cocky big-brotherly way")[2], a persona that could in some roles show darker aspects, as with the controlling Crichton in The Admirable Crichton and the brash Ambrose Claverhouse in Genevieve. In 1959, Rank's John Davis gave permission for More to work outside his contract to appear in The Guns of Navarone. More, however, made the mistake of heckling and swearing at Davis at a BAFTA dinner at the Dorchester, losing both the role (which went to David Niven) and his contract with Rank.[1]

He later appeared in a number of all-star war films, among them Sink the Bismarck!, (1960), The Longest Day (1962), Battle of Britain (1969), and Oh! What a Lovely War (1969).

His film parts got smaller in the 1960s, with some thinking his popularity declined when he left his wife to live with Angela Douglas.[3] His popularity recovered through West End stage performances and television roles, especially following his success in The Forsyte Saga, and as the title character in ATV's 1974 Father Brown. He is also known for his role as the Ghost of Christmas Present in 1970's Scrooge.

Stood in the wings to replace Bernard Lee as M in the James Bond film Live and Let Die when it wasn't known if an ill Lee would be able to appear.

Personal life

More was married three times. His first marriage in 1939 to actress Beryl Johnstone (one daughter, Susan, born 1941) ended in divorce in 1946. He married Mabel Edith "Bill" Barkby in 1952 (one daughter, Sarah, born 1954) but left her in 1968 for Angela Douglas, an actress 26 years his junior, causing considerable estrangement from friends and family. He was married to Douglas (whom he nicknamed "Shrimp")[1] from March 17 1968 until his death.The robot Kryten in the TV series "Red Dwarf" was named after More's character in The Admirable Crichton.

Kenneth More published two autobiographies, Happy Go Lucky in 1959 and More or Less in 1978.

He died in London from Parkinson's disease on 12 July 1982, aged 67, and was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium.

The Kenneth More Theatre, named in his honour, is in Ilford, Essex.

Filmography

References

  • Sheridan Morley, "More, Kenneth Gilbert (1914–1982)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 12 Sept 2007
  1. ^ a b c More or Less, Kenneth More, Hodder and Stoughton, 1978, ISBN 034022603
  2. ^ Shepperton Babylon, The Lost Worlds of British Cinema, Matthew Sweet, Faber & Faber, 2005, ISBN 0571212972
  3. ^ http://www.memorabletv.com/interviewspeteryeldham.htm

External links

Kenneth More Theatre - http://www.kenneth-more-theatre.co.uk/


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