Ronald Colman

Ronald Colman was twice married. His first marriage to Thelma Raye lasted from 1920 to 1934. His second marriage was to Benita Hume in 1938. He had one daughter.

He died on 19 May 1958, aged 67, from acute emphysema.

His daughter Juliet Benita Colman wrote his biography titled ‘Ronald Colman: A Very Private Person’ in 1975.

Ronald Charles Colman was born on 9 February 1891, in Richmond, Surrey, England, United Kingdom, to Charles Colman, a silk merchant, and his wife, Marjory Read Fraser. He had four siblings.

He was educated at a boarding-school in Littlehampton, Sussex, where he discovered that he enjoyed acting. However, pursuing acting as a career did not occur to him and he planned to study engineering at Cambridge.

A family tragedy forced him to change his plans. His father died of an illness in 1907 making it impossible for Ronald to pursue a higher education.

Ronald Colman took up acting and soon became a well-known amateur actor. He joined the West Middlesex Dramatic Society as a member and made his professional stage appearance in 1914.

He had to sideline his budding acting career at the outbreak of the World War I. He joined the London Scottish Regiment and was sent to France in September 1914 to take part in the fighting on the Western Front. He got seriously injured by shrapnel at the Battle of Messines due to which he was invalidated out of the British Army in 1915. Even though he eventually recovered, the injury gave him a permanent limp.

He resumed his acting career in 1916 and played the role of Rahmat Sheikh in the drama ‘The Maharani of Arakan’ and that of Stephen Weatherbee in the play ‘The Misleading Lady.’ His stage roles got him noticed by a film producer and by 1919 he had appeared in three short silent dramas.

Ronald Colman went to America in 1920 along with Robert Warwick and performed in ‘The Dauntless Three’ and appeared in ‘East is West’ with Fay Bainter. He gained a following in the US owing to his good looks and acting skills, and enjoyed great success playing Alain Sergyll at the Empire Theatre (New York City) in ‘La Tendresse.’

His stage appearances led to film offers and director Henry King cast him as the leading man in the film ‘The White Sister’ in 1923. The movie was a success and effectively launched Colman’s Hollywood career. Before long he became a star of the silent cinema and was cast opposite some of the most glamorous ladies of the era like Vilma Banky.

Ronald Colman played the titular character in the film ‘Bulldog Drummond’ which was based on a play by Herman C. McNeile. His character of a demobilized British captain who helps a beautiful young woman in distress became one of the actor’s much beloved roles and earned him an Academy Award nomination.

His portrayal of Anthony John, a fictional actor who becomes a ruthless murderer, is probably Colman’s best known role. With his stellar performance of a mentally unstable man, he proved that he could play both positive and negative characters with the same élan.