Reginald Gardiner
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Reginald Gardiner
Biography
The son of an insurance man who'd aspired to appear onstage but never had the chance, British-born actor Reginald Gardiner more than made up for his dad's unrealized dreams with a career lasting 50 years. Graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Gardiner started as a straight actor but drifted into musical revues, frequently working in the company of such favorite British entertainers as Bea Lillie. His Broadway bow occurred in the 1935 play At Home Abroad, and though he'd made his film debut nearly ten years earlier in Hitchcock's silent The Lodger (1926), he suddenly became a "new" Hollywood find. Handsome enough to play romantic leads had he so chosen (he gets away with it in the 1939 Laurel and Hardy comedy Flying Deuces), Gardiner preferred the sort of kidding-on-the-square comedy he'd done in his revue days. His turn as a traffic cop who imagines himself a symphony conductor in his first American film Born to Dance (1936) was so well received that he virtually repeated the bit--this time as a butler who harbors operatic aspirations--in Damsel in Distress (1937). For most of his film career, Gardiner played suave but slightly untrustworthy British gentlemen; a break from this pattern occurred in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940), in which Gardiner played a fascist military man who turns his back on dictator "Adenoid Hinkel" to cast his lot with a community of Jews. Devoting his private life to the enjoyment of classical music, rare books, painting, and monitoring the ghost that supposedly haunted his Beverly Hills home, Reginald Gardiner flourished as a stage, film and television actor into the 1960s; one of his latter-day assignments was his weekly dual role in the 1966 Phyllis Diller sitcom, Pruitts of Southampton. ~ Hal Erickson, RoviRelated Videos:
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Reginald Gardiner
Filmography:
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Reginald Gardiner
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Reginald Gardiner
| Reginald Gardiner | |
|---|---|
 from the trailer for the film Sweethearts (1938) |
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| Born | William Reginald Gardiner 27 February 1903 London, England |
| Died | 7 July 1980 (aged 77) Westwood, California, U.S. |
| Years active | 1927–68 |
| Spouse | Nadia Petrova (1942–80) (his death) 1 child Wyn Richmond (?–?) (divorced) |
Reginald Gardiner (27 February 1903 – 7 July 1980) was an English-born actor in film and television and a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in Britain. His parents wanted him to be an architect and he studied at it but he wanted to be an actor and eventually got his way.
He started as a super on stage and eventually became well known on the West End stage. He was also well known to wireless listeners and was known on air for his amusing train and car noises. Gardiner started film work in crowd scenes, making his big film break in 1926 in the silent film The Lodger, by Alfred Hitchcock. Moving to Hollywood, he was cast in numerous roles, often as a British butler. One of his most famous roles was that of Schultz in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator.
On October 4, 1956, Gardiner appeared with Greer Garson as the first two guest stars in the series premiere of NBC's The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.[1]
Toward the end of his career, Gardiner made increasing guest appearances on the leading television sitcoms of the 1960s, including Fess Parker's ABC series, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington as the lead guest in the episode "Citizen Bellows". His last major role was alongside Phyllis Diller in her short-lived ABC series, The Pruitts of Southampton (1966–67).
He also recorded a curious and eccentric classic called "Trains" which was regularly played on a British radio program called Children's Favourites during the 1950s. This consisted of Gardiner, sounding slightly tipsy, reciting a monologue about steam railway engines (which he claimed were 'livid beasts') and impersonating both the engines themselves and the sound of trains running on the track. This latter he famously characterised as 'diddly-dee, diddly-dum' to mimic the sound pattern as the four pairs of bogie wheels ran over joins between the lengths of track. (A sound no longer heard since welded rail joins were introduced.) "Trains" was released as a 78 and 45 by English Decca Records (F 5278) which remained on catalogue into the 1970s. At the end of the record, Gardiner signs off with "Well folks, that's all: back to the asylum." He was summoned to Buckingham Palace to give a performance in person.
Partial filmography
- Leave It to Smith (1933)
- The Diplomatic Lover (1934)
- Virginia's Husband (1934)
- The Great Dictator (1940)
- Sundown (1941)
- My Life with Caroline (1941)
- A Yank in the R.A.F. (1941)
- The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)
- The Dolly Sisters (1945)
- The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945)
- I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now (1947)
- That Wonderful Urge (1948)
- Androcles and the Lion (1952)
- Do Not Disturb (1965)
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Reginald Gardiner |
- Reginald Gardiner at the Internet Movie Database
- Reginald Gardiner at the Internet Broadway Database
- Reginald Gardiner at Find a Grave
References
- ^ "The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show". tv.com. http://www.tv.com/the-tennessee-ernie-ford-show/october-4-1956/episode/1145421/recap.html. Retrieved November 25, 2010.
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