
Henry Daniell
Personal Info
Known for
Acting
Gender
Male
Birthday
1894-03-04
Day of Death
1963-10-31 (69 years old)
Place of Birth
Barnes, Surrey, UK
Henry Daniell
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Charles Henry Daniell (5 March 1894 – 31 October 1963) was an English actor who had a long and prestigious career on stage as well as in films. He is perhaps best known for his villainous roles in films like The Great Dictator, The Philadelphia Story and The Sea Hawk. Daniell was given few opportunities to play a 'good guy', including a supporting part as Franz Liszt in the biographical film Song of Love (1947). His last name is sometimes spelled "Daniel".
Daniell's film debut came in 1929 in Jealousy. He appeared as Professor Moriarty in the Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes film The Woman in Green (1945). He appeared in other films such as Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940) (playing Garbitsch, to sound like "garbage", a parody of Joseph Goebbels), and The Body Snatcher (1945, with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi) – as well as two other films in the Sherlock Holmes/Basil Rathbone series: The Voice of Terror (1942) and Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943) with fellow Moriarty George Zucco.
Daniell played the sleazy Baron de Varville opposite Greta Garbo in Camille (1936). Another early triumph was his portrayal of Cecil in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939). He also played the treacherous Lord Wolfingham (no relation to Francis Walsingham) in The Sea Hawk (1940), fighting Errol Flynn in what is often considered one of the most spectacular sword fighting duels ever filmed. When Michael Curtiz cast him in this film, Henry Daniell initially refused because he couldn't fence. Curtiz accomplished the climactic duel through the use of shadows and over-shoulder shots, with a double fencing Flynn with ingenious inter-cutting of their faces.
Towards the end of the Second World War, he appeared in one of his most memorable film roles, as the cruel Mr. Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre (1944), opposite Joan Fontaine who played Eyre. That same year he appeared in The Suspect as Charles Laughton's blackmailing next-door neighbour. In the 1950s and 1960s, he did much television, and also appeared as the malevolent Dr. Emil Zurich in Edward L. Cahn's The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959), and in an episode of Maverick, "Pappy" opposite James Garner the same year. An absolute professional, he was always on the set when needed, and impatient when delays in filming took place. Much in demand for his dry, sardonic delivery, Daniell moved easily from big-budget films, such as (uncredited) Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), to television without difficulty. In 1957, Daniell appeared as King Charles II of England in the NBC anthology series The Joseph Cotten Show in the episode "The Trial of Colonel Blood", with Michael Wilding in the title role. In the same year he played the instructing solicitor to Charles Laughton's leading counsel barrister in Witness for the Prosecution (1957).
The actor claimed one of his favourite roles was as Tony Curtis' supervisor in the acclaimed Blake Edwards film Mister Cory (1957) at a time when the actor's career was clearly slowing down, but Daniell retained some of the best and most memorable lines in the movie, "A gentleman never grabs. Manners, Mister Cory. I find them a prerequisite in any circumstance."
Known For
Acting
(2007)
Hitler: The Comedy Years
as Garbitsch (archive footage) (uncredited)
(1964)
My Fair Lady
as Ambassador (uncredited)
(1962)
Mutiny on the Bounty
as Court-martial Judge (uncredited)
(1962)
The Notorious Landlady
as Stranger
(1962)
Five Weeks in a Balloon
as Sheik Ageiba
(1962)
The Chapman Report
as Dr. Jonas
(1961)
The Comancheros
as Gireaux
(1961)
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
as Dr. Zucco
(1961)
Madison Avenue
as Stipe
(1959)
The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake
as Dr. Emil Zurich
(1958)
From the Earth to the Moon
as Morgana
(1957)
Witness for the Prosecution
as Mayhew
(1957)
Les Girls
as Judge
(1957)
The Sun Also Rises
as Doctor
(1957)
Mister Cory
as Mr. Earnshaw
(1957)
The Story of Mankind
as Pierre Cauchon - Bishop of Beauvais
(1956)
Lust for Life
as Theodorus van Gogh
(1956)
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
as Bill Ogden
(1956)
Diane
as Gondi
(1956)
The Barretts of Wimpole Street
as Edward Moulton-Barrett
(1955)
The Prodigal
as Ramadi
(1954)
The Egyptian
as Mekere
(1950)
Buccaneer's Girl
as Capt. Duval
(1949)
Siren of Atlantis
as Blades
(1949)
The Secret Of St. Ives
as Maj. Edward Chevenish
(1948)
Wake of the Red Witch
as Jacques Desaix
(1947)
Song of Love
as Franz Liszt
(1947)
The Exile
as Colonel Ingram
(1946)
The Bandit of Sherwood Forest
as The Regent - William of Pembroke
(1946)
Angel Street
as Mr. Manningham
(1945)
The Woman in Green
as Professor James Moriarty
(1945)
The Body Snatcher
as Dr. Wolfe 'Toddy' MacFarlane
(1945)
Captain Kidd
as King William III
(1945)
The Suspect
as Mr. Simmons
(1945)
Hotel Berlin
as Baron Von Stetten
(1943)
Jane Eyre
as Henry Brocklehurst
(1943)
Sherlock Holmes in Washington
as William Easter
(1943)
Mission to Moscow
as Minister von Ribbentrop
(1943)
Watch on the Rhine
as Phili Von Ramme
(1942)
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror
as Sir Anthony Lloyd
(1942)
Reunion in France
as Emile Fleuron
(1942)
Nightmare
as Capt. Edgar Stafford
(1942)
Castle in the Desert
as Watson King
(1942)
Four Jacks and a Jill
as Bobo
(1942)
The Great Impersonation
as Frederick Seamon
(1941)
A Woman's Face
as Public Prosecutor
(1941)
Dressed to Kill
as Julian Davis
(1941)
The Feminine Touch
as Shelley Mason
(1940)
The Great Dictator
as Garbitsch
(1940)
The Philadelphia Story
as Sidney Kidd
(1940)
The Sea Hawk
as Lord Wolfingham
(1940)
All This, and Heaven Too
as Broussais
(1939)
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
as Sir Robert Cecil
(1939)
We Are Not Alone
as Sir Ronald Dawson
(1938)
Holiday
as Seton Cram
(1938)
Marie Antoinette
as La Motte
(1937)
The Firefly
as General Savary
(1937)
Madame X
as Lerocle
(1937)
Under Cover of Night
as Professor Marvin Griswald
(1937)
The Thirteenth Chair
as John Wales
(1936)
Camille
as Baron de Varville
(1936)
The Unguarded Hour
as Hugh Lewis
(1934)
The Path of Glory
as King Maximillian
(1930)
The Last of the Lone Wolf
as Count von Rimpau (as Henry Daniel)
(1929)
Jealousy
as Clement
(1929)
The Awful Truth
as Norman Warriner