James Mason (1909 - 1984)

For the women of wartime Britain, James Mason was Heathcliff, Mr Rochester and Mr Darcy all rolled into one brooding package.

He was born in Huddersfield and educated at Marlborough and Cambridge. Though trained as an architect, he transferred his interest to the theatre and started off in rep at Aldershot in 1931. He was soon in the West End which inevitably lead to a dabble with film, though this one ended badly when he was replaced on The Private Life of Don Juan. He then joined the Gate Theatre in Dublin. He stayed there for three years, but crossed back to England occasionally for the odd film role.

His career got a boost with I Met a Murderer which he set up with his friends Roy and Pamela Kellino. The Kellinos were both well-connected in the film industry: he was a cinematographer and son of director W P Kellino, she was an actress and daughter of Isadore Ostrer chairman of Gaumont-British. The film was a modest success. They all remained friends even when Pamela divorced Roy and married James.

After a steady couple of years, he got the role that established his position as a sex symbol: The Man in Grey. In this, the first of the Gainsborough Melodramas, he was thoroughly rotten to the ladies - and they loved it. The huge international success of The Seventh Veil got Hollywood interested and he left for the States, leaving behind much criticism.

His early years in Hollywood were disappointing. For the first few years the films he made there were largely unsuccessful. His first solid hit was the Rommel biopic, The Desert Fox. However, though he remained a star, even in his most successful films he was usually just second lead such as in his Oscar nominated turn in A Star is Born. Pamela turned to journalism, becoming a noted gossip columnist; their marriage ended in 1964.

As he aged, he accepted smaller roles but rarely allowed the standard of his performance to drop. Though many of his later films are unmemorable, he never allowed himself to go down the outrageously hammy route taken by many aging actors.  

Filmography 

 James Mason at Amazon UK

 James Mason at Amazon US