James Donald
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia James Donald (18 May 1917 - 3 August 1993) was a Scottish actor. Tall and gaunt, he specialised in playing authority figures; military officers, doctors or scientists. Donald was born in Aberdeen, and made his first professional stage appearance sometime in the late-1930s, having been educated at Rossall School on Lancashire's Fylde coast. During World War II he appeared in minor roles in such propaganda classics as In Which We Serve (1942), Went the Day Well? (1942) and The Way Ahead (1944), and he played Mr. Winkle in the 1952 film version of The Pickwick Papers. However, leading roles eluded him until Lust for Life (1956), in which he played Theo Van Gogh. His work in the theatre included Noël Coward's Present Laughter (1943) which starred Coward himself, and The Eagle with Two Heads (1947), You Never Can Tell (1948), and The Heiress (1949) with Ralph Richardson, Peggy Ashcroft and Donald Sinden. He memorably portrayed Major Clipton, the doctor who expresses grave doubts about the sanity of Col. Nicholson's (Alec Guinness) efforts to build the bridge in order to show up his Japanese captors, in the film The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). The final words are his: "Madness!, Madness!" He also played Group Captain Ramsey, the Senior British Officer in The Great Escape (1963), as well as supporting roles in other notable films both in Britain and the United States, including The Vikings (1958), King Rat (1965), Cast a Giant Shadow (1966), and Quatermass and the Pit (1967). Donald starred in a 1960 television adaptation of A. J. Cronin's The Citadel and appeared regularly in many other television dramas in the UK and USA, as well as on stage. In 1961, he played Prince Albert opposite Julie Harris's Queen Victoria, in the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of Laurence Housman's play Victoria Regina. Description above from the Wikipedia article James Donald, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Credits
- 2015 · Doc in the Box as Crabs Guy
- 1987 · Hammer: The Studio That Dripped Blood as Dr. Mathew Roney (archive footage)
- 1978 · The Big Sleep as Inspector Gregory
- 1975 · Conduct Unbecoming as The Doctor
- 1969 · David Copperfield as Mr. Murdstone
- 1969 · Destiny of a Spy as Sir Martin Rolfe
- 1969 · The Royal Hunt of the Sun as Carlos V
- 1969 · The Royal Hunt of the Sun as King Carlos
- 1967 · Quatermass and the Pit as Dr. Mathew Roney
- 1967 · The Jokers as Col. Gurney-Simms
- 1966 · Cast a Giant Shadow as Maj. Safir
- 1965 · King Rat as Dr. Kennedy
- 1963 · Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre as
- 1963 · The Great Escape as Ramsey 'The SBO'
- 1963 · Pygmalion as Henry Higgins
- 1961 · Victoria Regina as Prince Albert
- 1961 · Ben Casey as
- 1960 · The Citadel as Dr. Andrew Manson
- 1959 · Third Man on the Mountain as Franz Lerner
- 1959 · Perilous Assignment as Self
- 1959 · Play of the Week as Priest
- 1958 · The Vikings as Lord Egbert
- 1957 · The Bridge on the River Kwai as Maj. Clipton
- 1957 · DuPont Show of the Month as Sydney Carton
- 1956 · Lust for Life as Theo van Gogh
- 1955 · Alfred Hitchcock Presents as Harry Pope
- 1955 · Alfred Hitchcock Presents as Mark Cavendish
- 1954 · Beau Brummell as Lord Edwin Mercer
- 1953 · The Net as Michael Heathley
- 1952 · The Pickwick Papers as Nathaniel Winkle
- 1952 · Gift Horse as Lt. Richard Jennings, No. 1
- 1952 · Brandy for the Parson as Bill Harper
- 1951 · Hallmark Hall of Fame as Prince Albert
- 1951 · Hallmark Hall of Fame as Henry Higgins
- 1951 · Hallmark Hall of Fame as Warwick
- 1951 · White Corridors as Neil Marriner
- 1950 · Cage of Gold as Alan
- 1949 · Trottie True as Lord Digby Langdon
- 1949 · Edward, My Son as Bronton
- 1948 · The Small Voice as Murray Byrne
- 1948 · Broken Journey as Bill Haverton
- 1944 · The Way Ahead as Pvt. Evans Lloyd
- 1943 · San Demetrio London as Gunnery Officer - H.M.S. Jervis Bay
- 1942 · In Which We Serve as Doc
- 1942 · One of Our Aircraft Is Missing as (uncredited)