James Donald
| James Donald | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
James Robert MacGeorge Donald 18 May 1917 Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK |
| Died | 3 August 1993 (aged 76) West Tytherley, Hampshire, England, UK |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1930s-1978 |
| Spouse(s) | Ann Donald (?-1993) (his death) 1 child |
James Donald (18 May 1917 – 3 August 1993) was a Scottish actor. Tall and thin, he specialised in playing authority figures.
Donald was born in Aberdeen, and made his first professional stage appearance in the late-1930s, having been educated at Rossall School on Lancashire's Fylde coast. During the Second World War he had minor roles in war films, including In Which We Serve (1942), Went the Day Well? (1942) and The Way Ahead (1944). He played Mr. Winkle in the 1952 film version of The Pickwick Papers. However, leading roles eluded him until he played Theo Van Gogh in Lust for Life (1956).
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 classic war film The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). He had the honour of speaking the film's iconic final words: "Madness!, Madness!" He also played another memorable military character, Group Captain Ramsey, the Senior British Officer in The Great Escape (1963), as well as 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).
...
Wikipedia