British leading man of primarily American films, one of the great stars of the Golden Age. Raised in Ealing, the son of a successful silk merchant, he attended boarding school in Sussex, where he first discovered amateur theatre. He intended to attend Cambridge and become an engineer, but his fathers death cost him the financial support necessary. He joined the London Scottish Regionals and at the outbreak of World War I was sent to France. Seriously wounded at the battle of Messines--he was gassed--he was invalided out of service scarcely two months after shipping out for France. Upon his recovery he tried to enter the consular service, but a chance encounter got him a small role in a London play. He dropped other plans and concentrated on the theatre, and was rewarded with a succession of increasingly prominent parts. He made extra money appearing in a few minor films, and in 1920 set out for New York in hopes of finding greater fortune there than in war-depressed England. After two years of impoverishment he was cast in a Broadway hit, La Tendresse. Director Henry King spotted him in the show and cast him as Lillian Gishs leading man in The White Sister (1923). His success in the film led to a contract with Samuel Goldwyn, and his career as a Hollywood leading man was underway. He became a vastly popular star of silent films, in romances as well as adventure films. The coming of sound made his extraordinarily beautiful speaking voice even more important to the film industry. He played sophisticated, thoughtful characters of integrity with enormous aplomb, and swashbuckled expertly when called to do so in films like The Prisoner of Zenda (1937). A decade later he received an Academy Award for his splendid portrayal of a tormented actor in A Double Life (1947). Much of his later career was devoted to The Halls of Ivy, a radio show that later was transferred to television The Halls of Ivy (1954). He continued to work until nearly the end of his life, which came in 1958 after a brief lung illness. He was survived by his second wife, actress Benita Hume, and their daughter Juliet Benita Colman.
Film 1930
Robert " Bob " Conway
Film 1937
Michael Lightcap
Film 1942
Beauregard Bottomley
Film 1950
The Spirit of Man
Film 1957
Hafiz
Film 1944
Major Rudolf Rassendyll / The Prisoner of Zenda
Film 1937
Anthony Mason
Film 1941
Captain Hugh 'Bulldog' Drummond
Film 1929
Capt. Giovanni Severi
Film 1923
Carlo Bucellini
Film 1924
Dr. Martin Arrowsmith
Film 1931
Sgt. Victor
Film 1936
Barrington Hunt
Film 1931
Willard Holmes
Film 1926
Willie Hale
Film 1930
Lord Darlington
Film 1925
Michel
Film 1929
A.J. Raffles
Film 1930
Stephen Dallas
Film 1925
David Grant
Film 1940
Tito the Clown / The Count
Film 1927
Paul Gaillard
Film 1935
Joseph
Film 1925
Paul Menford
Film 1924
Michael 'Beau' Geste
Film 1926
Dick Heldar
Film 1939
Sir John Chilcote / John Loder
Film 1933
Tom Lingard
Film 1929
Mark van Rycke
Film 1928
Victor Renal
Film 1926
'A Tale of Two Cities' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Film 1961
Maurice Blake
Film 1925
Montero
Film 1927
Film 1930
Self (archive footage)
Film 2001
Brendan
Film 1920
Donald MacAllan
Film 1925
Captain Alan Trent
Film 1925
John Douglas
Film 1925
Self (archive footage)
Film 1988
Self - from 'Late George Apley' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Film 1949
Chester Reeves
Film 1924
Emmet Carr
Film 1924
Bob
Film 1919
Tv 1954
Caller
Tv 1952
Cameron
Tv 1952
Dr. Bosanquent
Tv 1952
Narrator
Tv 1952
Self
Tv 1948
Ronald Colman
Tv 1950