Donald Gray
| Donald Gray | |
|---|---|
Gray in 1938
|
|
| Born |
Elred Owermann Tidbury 3 March 1914 Tidburys Toll, Fort Beaufort, Cape Province, South Africa |
| Died | 7 April 1978 (aged 64) South Africa |
| Residence |
United States (1933–35) United Kingdom |
| Nationality | South African |
| Other names | Don Tidbury (stage name) |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1933–1975 |
| Employer |
Paramount Pictures (1933–35) BBC |
| Television |
Mark Saber (1955–61) Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967–68) |
| Spouse(s) | Sheila Green (m. 1955; his death 1978) |
| Children | 2 |
Donald Gray (born Elred Owermann Tidbury, 3 March 1914 – 7 April 1978) was a South African actor, well known for his starring role in the British TV series Mark Saber, for providing the voices of Colonel White, Captain Black and the Mysterons in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, and for being the reason that Donald Marshall Gray changed his name to Charles Gray when he became an actor. Perhaps not coincidentally, in some spin-off media Colonel White's real name is stated to be Charles Grey.
In 1933, film company Paramount Pictures wanted to re-juvenate and diversify its contract players, and launched a competition known as the "Search for Beauty"; heats took place in nations across the English-speaking world. Elred Tidbury entered in his native South Africa and was selected with Lucille Du Toit, a dental nurse from Pretoria, as one of the winners. Colin Tapley, who would later appear opposite Gray in the TV series Mark Saber, was the New Zealand male winner. In total, there were 30 finalists worldwide, who were screen-tested over six weeks at the end of 1933. Of the 30, bit player contracts were awarded to 10, and Tidbury was selected as the overall male winner with a bonus of US$1,000, with which he bought a car. The overall female winner was Scottish actress Gwenllien Gill, who later followed Tidbury to England and became engaged to him; however, their engagement was broken off during the Second World War.
All the winners appeared in the 1933 film Search for Beauty, whose distribution was complicated by a ruling that it violated the Hays Code. Paramount kept Tidbury's contact during 1934, but in 1935, when his passport expired, Tidbury left; he did not wish to become an American citizen. By late 1935, he had re-appeared in England under the name Don Tidbury, and by the following year was calling himself Donald Gray. He became an engineering salesman selling a boiler preparation, acted in repertory theatre, and appeared in several films for Paramount's UK subsidiary, British & Dominions Film Corporation. In 1936, he encountered director Albert Parker and was given the leading role in Strange Experiment after James Mason quit the production. In 1938, he was chosen as the young lead in Alexander Korda's film The Four Feathers, and appeared in other films before returning to repertory theatre in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1939 and 1940.
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