Born July 1, 1899 in Yorkshire, England, young Charles Laughton followed his father into the hotel management business, but in his late twenties enrolled as a student in London’s prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) where he excelled. Soon appearing on the London stage, he was the first actor to play Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot in 1928’s Alibi, an adaptation of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. He brought the play, Payment Deferred in which he played is first vile character, to Broadway in 1931 and had his greatest stage success in America in Galileo.

Laughton’s  film career began in England with a bit part in 1929’s Picadilly. His Hollywood career began with a featured role in 1932’s The Old Dark House and in earnest later that year with Payment Deferred, If I Had a Million and The Sign of the Cross. His celebrated portrayal of the mad emperor Nero in the latter was the first of his many historical roles on screen.

Alexander Korda reportedly saw a painting of Henry VIII in Britain’s National Gallery that reminded him of Laughton, his inspiration for writing, producing and directing The Private Life of Henry VIII for which Laughton received his first Oscar nomination and his only Oscar. The mad scientist in Island of Lost Souls, also released that year, was another triumph.

In 1934, Laughton all but stole The Barretts of Wimpole Street from romantic leads Norma Shearer and Fredric March as Shearer’s domineering father. Cast as Mr. Macawber in David Copperfield, he left the project after just a few days ostensibly because he didn’t get the character. More likely, though, is that he heard the rumors that he looked like he was going to molest Freddie Bartholomew in the title role and was afraid of the repercussions that would have on his career.

1935 brought him three of his greatest roles, as the unyielding Inspector Javert in Les Miserables, the titled butler won in a poker game and brought to America in Ruggles of Red Gap and the tyrannical Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty, for which he received his second Oscar nomination. He followed that great year with another memorable role as the troubled artist in 1936’s Rembrandt.

Abandoned after just a few scenes were shot, I, Claudius looked like it would be another one of Laughton’s great films, but it wasn’t to be. The film was suspended after co-star Merle Oberon was injured in a car crash. He did have one more great 1930s role, though, with which to round that of Quasimodo in 1939’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Through most of the 1940s, Laughton was badly miscast in roles that did not measure up to his talents. Exceptions included that of the elderly millionaire whose life is brightened by Deanna Durbin in 1941’s It Started With Eve; the cowardly schoolmaster in 1943’s This Land Is Mine, the titled ectoplasm in an updated wartime version of 1944’s The Canterville Ghost, the henpecked husband driven to murder in 1945’s The Suspect and the megalomaniac press tycoon in 1948’s The Big Clock.

Laughton’s best early 1950s role was as the miserly father in 1954’s Hobson’s Choice. He also directed his only film, The Night of the Hunter, a flop at the time, but now considered one of the great American films of its era.  He returned to Agatha Christie in 1957’s Witness for the Prosecution, receiving his third and final Oscar nomination for his delightful portrayal of a wily barrister.

He gave two other superb late career performances as a Roman Senator in 1960’s Spartacus and and a bigoted  U.S. Senator in 1962’s Advise and Consent.

Charles Laughton died December 15, 1962 at 63.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII (1933), directed by Alexander Korda

Laughton fit the part of Henry VIII like a glove. Not only did he look like he stepped out of a painting of the king, he played the part as we might well have imagined him – ugly, slovenly and a bit dense. An excellent supporting cast including Robert Donat, Binnie Barnes, Elsa Lanchester (his real-life wife and frequent co-star), Wendy Barrie and Merle Oberon among others gave him memorable support.  He played Henry again in 1953’s Young Bess.  It wasn’t until Robert Shaw’s portrayal of Henry as young and lusty in 1966’s A Man for All Seasons that we saw Henry played by someone we could understand all those wives being attracted to.

THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET (1934), directed by Sidney Franklin

Put into production just as the infamous Hollywood Production Code was going into effect, this heavily sanitized version of the play about the love affair between Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning starred Norma Shearer and Fredric March as the lovers and Laughton as Barrett’s tyrannical father, Edward Moulton-Barrett. All hints of Moulton-Barrett’s incestuous feelings toward daughters Shearer and Maureen O’Sullivan had to be suppressed. This led to Laughton’s famous proclamation that “they couldn’t censor the gleam in my eye” and indeed they couldn’t.  Una O’Connor also had an important role as Laughton’s maid.

MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935), directed by Frank Lloyd

Laughton’s Oscar-nominated portrayal of bellowing Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty opposite Clark Gable as Fletcher Christian, the year’s Oscar winner for Best Picture, was one of three great roles for Laughton that year.  He was also memorable as Inspector Javert opposite Fredric March’s Jean Valjean in Les Misérables and as the imported English butler who shames a room full of hicks with his recitation of the Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in Ruggles of Red Gap. He won the inaugural New York Film Critics Award for Best Actor for his performances in both Mutiny on the Bounty and Ruggles of Red Gap.

WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION (1957), directed by Billy Wilder

After a long dry spell and the failure of The Night of the Hunter, the only film he directed, Laughton was overdue for another great career highlight and got it in this adaptation of Agatha Christie’s celebrated stage production. Third-billed behind Tyrone Power and Marlene Dietrich, Laughton was nominated for his delightful portrayal of a wily barrister while his wife Elsa Lanchester was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for a role written for her that was not in the stage version.  Una O’Connor was the only member of the Broadway cast to repeat her stage role, that of the hard-of-hearing maid of the murder victim.

ADVISE & CONSENT (1962), directed by Otto Preminger

Laughton’s last role was another great one, that of a bigoted Southern senator in the film version of Allen Drury’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the machinations of the U.S. Senate in the surrounding President Franchot Tone’s pick for Secretary of State, Henry Fonda.  Lew Ayes as the Vice President, Walter Pidgeon as the Majority Leader, Don Murray as a vulnerable young senator, George Grizzrd as a nasty one, and Burgess Meredith as witness at Fonda’s confirmation hearing stand out in the huge supporting cast.  Peter Lawford, brother-in-law of real-life President Kennedy and Gene Tierney, one of Kennedy’s former paramours, are also in it.

CHARLES LAUGHTON AND OSCAR

The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933) – Oscar – Best Actor

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) – nominated – Best Acor

Witness for the Prosecution (1957) – nominated – Best Actor