EARLY DAYS PRODUCTIONS
Laughton was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, the son of Robert Laughton by his wife Elizabeth (née Conlon). He attended Stonyhurst College, a Jesuit school, in Lancashire, England. After serving during World War I, he started work in the family hotel business. He was finally allowed by his family to become a drama student at RADA in 1925. Laughton made his first professional stage appearance on April 28, 1926 at the Barnes Theatre, as Osip in the comedy The Government Inspector. Despite not having the looks for a romantic lead, he impressed audiences with his talent and played classical roles in two plays by Chekov. Laughton started his film career in England while still acting on the London stage. He took small roles in two short silent comedies starring his wife Elsa Lanchester. He made his New York stage debut in 1931, which immediately led to film offers. Laughton's first Hollywood film was The Old Dark House (1932) with Boris Karloff in which he played a bluff Yorkshire businessman marooned during a storm with other travellers in a creepy mansion in the Welsh mountains. His association with film director Alexander Korda began in 1933 with The Private Life of Henry VIII (loosely based on the life of King Henry VIII of England), for which Laughton won an Academy Award. Laughton soon gave up the stage in preference for a movie career and returned to Hollywood. One of his most famous screen roles was as Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) co-starring Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian; and Ruggles of Red Gap (1935) as the very English butler transported to early 1900s America. Back in England, and again with Alexander Korda, he played the title role in Rembrandt (1936).
1899-1962
Stats:
Birth Name: Charles Laughton
Height: 5' 8"
Hair Color: brown
Eye Color: blue
Nickname: none found
Quote: "Method actors give you a photograph. Real actors give you an oil painting."
Birth Name: Charles Laughton
Height: 5' 8"
Hair Color: brown
Eye Color: blue
Nickname: none found
Quote: "Method actors give you a photograph. Real actors give you an oil painting."
In 1937, Charles and the legendary German film producer Erich Pommer teamed up, founding the company Mayflower Pictures in the UK, which produced three films starring Laughton: Vessel of Wrath (1938), based on a story by W. Somerset Maugham, in which Laughton's wife Elsa Lanchester co-starred; St. Martin's Lane, a story about London street entertainers that also featured Vivien Leigh and Rex Harrison; and Jamaica Inn, with Maureen O'Hara and Robert Newton, based on a novel about Cornish smugglers by Daphne du Maurier , and the last film Alfred Hitchcock directed in Britain before moving to Hollywood in the late 1930s.
The films produced were not successful enough, and the company was saved from bankruptcy when RKO Pictures offered Laughton the title role of Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939). Laughton and Pommer had plans to make further films, but the outbreak of World War II, which implied the loss of many foreign markets, meant the end of the company. Laughton's film roles in the 1930s consisted almost entirely of the costume and historical drama parts for which he is best remembered (ie: Nero, Henry VIII, Mr. Barrett, Captain Bligh, Rembrandt, Quasimodo, etc). In his modern-dress film roles in his 1940s movies his over-the-top acting style often led to variable results.
More successful however were the two comedies he made with Deanna Durbin, It Started with Eve (1941) and Because of Him (1946). He also seemed to enjoy himself both as a blood-thirsty pirate in Captain Kidd (1945) and as a malevolent judge in Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case (1948). Laughton was on top form again as a megalomaniac press tycoon in The Big Clock (1948). He had supporting roles as a Nazi in pre-war Paris in Arch of Triumph (1948); as a bishop in The Girl from Manhattan (1948); as a seedy go-between in The Bribe (1949); and a kindly widower in The Blue Veil (1951). He was a tramp in O. Henry's Full House (1952) in which he had a one-minute scene with Marilyn Monroe. He became a pirate again, buffoon-style this time, in Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952); he played Herod Antipas in Salome (1953) and repeated his role as Henry VIII in Young Bess (1953). He returned to England to star in Hobson's Choice (1954) directed by David Lean.
Laughton took a stab at directing a movie, and the result was the legendary The Night of the Hunter (1955), starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish. This movie is often cited among today's critics as one of the best movies of the 1950s. Unfortunately it was a critical and box-office flop when it was originally released, and Laughton never had another chance to direct a film. He did not appear in the film, but worked solely as a director. Laughton received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for his role as Sir Wilfrid Robarts in the screen version of Agatha Christie's play Witness for the Prosecution (1957). (He had been the first actor to portray Agatha Christie's Belgian detective Hercule Poirot when he starred in Alibi - a stage adaptation of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - in 1928.)
He played a British admiral in Under Ten Flags (1960) and worked for the first and only time with his chief acting rival, Laurence Olivier, in Spartacus (1960) as a wily Roman senator.
His final film was Advise and Consent (1962), for which he received favorable comments for his performance as a southern U.S. Senator (for which accent he studied recordings of the late Mississippi Senator John Stennis). Laughton worked on the film, which was directed by Otto Preminger, while he was dying from bone cancer.
He played a British admiral in Under Ten Flags (1960) and worked for the first and only time with his chief acting rival, Laurence Olivier, in Spartacus (1960) as a wily Roman senator.
His final film was Advise and Consent (1962), for which he received favorable comments for his performance as a southern U.S. Senator (for which accent he studied recordings of the late Mississippi Senator John Stennis). Laughton worked on the film, which was directed by Otto Preminger, while he was dying from bone cancer.
For more information about Charles Laughton please visit: Wikipedia
The Charles Laughton's Selected Filmography
1962 Advise & Consent
1960 Spartacus
1960 Under Ten Flags
1957 Witness for the Prosecution
1954 Hobson's Choice
1953 Young Bess
1953 Salome
1952 Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd
1952 Full House
1951 The Strange Door
1951 The Blue Veil
1949 The Man on the Eiffel Tower
1949 The Bribe
1948 The Girl from Manhattan
1948 The Big Clock
1948 Arch of Triumph
1948 On Our Merry Way
1947 The Paradine Case
1947 Leben des Galilei (short)
1946 Because of Him
1945 Captain Kidd
1944 The Suspect
1944 The Canterville Ghost
1944 Passport to Destiny
1943 The Man from Down Under
1943 This Land Is Mine
1943 Forever and a Day
1942 Stand by for Action
1942 Tales of Manhattan
1942 The Tuttles of Tahiti
1941 It Started with Eve
1940 They Knew What They Wanted
1939 The Hunchback of Notre Dame
1939 Jamaica Inn
1938 Sidewalks of London
1938 The Beachcomber
1937 I, Claudius
1936 Rembrandt
1935 Mutiny on the Bounty
1935 Les Misérables
1935 Ruggles of Red Gap
1934 The Barretts of Wimpole Street
1933 White Woman
1933 The Private Life of Henry VIII.
1932 Island of Lost Souls
1932 The Sign of the Cross
1932 If I Had a Million
1932 Payment Deferred
1932 The Old Dark House
1932 Devil and the Deep
1931 Down River
1930 Wolves (short)
1929 Piccadilly
1928 Daydreams (short)
1928 Blue Bottles (short)
1928 The Tonic (short)
1960 Spartacus
1960 Under Ten Flags
1957 Witness for the Prosecution
1954 Hobson's Choice
1953 Young Bess
1953 Salome
1952 Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd
1952 Full House
1951 The Strange Door
1951 The Blue Veil
1949 The Man on the Eiffel Tower
1949 The Bribe
1948 The Girl from Manhattan
1948 The Big Clock
1948 Arch of Triumph
1948 On Our Merry Way
1947 The Paradine Case
1947 Leben des Galilei (short)
1946 Because of Him
1945 Captain Kidd
1944 The Suspect
1944 The Canterville Ghost
1944 Passport to Destiny
1943 The Man from Down Under
1943 This Land Is Mine
1943 Forever and a Day
1942 Stand by for Action
1942 Tales of Manhattan
1942 The Tuttles of Tahiti
1941 It Started with Eve
1940 They Knew What They Wanted
1939 The Hunchback of Notre Dame
1939 Jamaica Inn
1938 Sidewalks of London
1938 The Beachcomber
1937 I, Claudius
1936 Rembrandt
1935 Mutiny on the Bounty
1935 Les Misérables
1935 Ruggles of Red Gap
1934 The Barretts of Wimpole Street
1933 White Woman
1933 The Private Life of Henry VIII.
1932 Island of Lost Souls
1932 The Sign of the Cross
1932 If I Had a Million
1932 Payment Deferred
1932 The Old Dark House
1932 Devil and the Deep
1931 Down River
1930 Wolves (short)
1929 Piccadilly
1928 Daydreams (short)
1928 Blue Bottles (short)
1928 The Tonic (short)
Early Days Productions: Charles Laughton 02/27/2012
Full Movie: Captain Kidd (1945)
The unhistorical adventures of pirate Captain Kidd revolve around treasure and treachery. - Edited from IMDB
He played an Italian vineyard owner in California in They Knew What They Wanted (1940); a South Seas patriarch in The Tuttles of Tahiti (1942); an impoverished composer-pianist in Tales of Manhattan (1942); an American admiral in Stand by for Action (1942); a butler in Forever and a Day (1943); a cowardly school-master in occupied France in This Land is Mine (1943); an Australian bar-owner in The Man from Down Under (1943); the title role in an up-dated version of Oscar Wilde's The Canterville Ghost (1944); and a wife-murderer in The Suspect (1944).