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Henry Daniell

Henry Daniell

Birthday: 1894-03-05 | Place of Birth: Barnes, Surrey, UK

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Charles Henry Daniell (5 March 1894 – 31 October 1963) was an English actor who had a long and prestigious career on stage as well as in films. He is perhaps best known for his villainous roles in films like The Great Dictator, The Philadelphia Story and The Sea Hawk. Daniell was given few opportunities to play a 'good guy', including a supporting part as Franz Liszt in the biographical film Song of Love (1947). His last name is sometimes spelled "Daniel". Daniell's film debut came in 1929 in Jealousy. He appeared as Professor Moriarty in the Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes film The Woman in Green (1945). He appeared in other films such as Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940) (playing Garbitsch, to sound like "garbage", a parody of Joseph Goebbels), and The Body Snatcher (1945, with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi) – as well as two other films in the Sherlock Holmes/Basil Rathbone series: The Voice of Terror (1942) and Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943) with fellow Moriarty George Zucco. Daniell played the sleazy Baron de Varville opposite Greta Garbo in Camille (1936). Another early triumph was his portrayal of Cecil in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939). He also played the treacherous Lord Wolfingham (no relation to Francis Walsingham) in The Sea Hawk (1940), fighting Errol Flynn in what is often considered one of the most spectacular sword fighting duels ever filmed. When Michael Curtiz cast him in this film, Henry Daniell initially refused because he couldn't fence. Curtiz accomplished the climactic duel through the use of shadows and over-shoulder shots, with a double fencing Flynn with ingenious inter-cutting of their faces. Towards the end of the Second World War, he appeared in one of his most memorable film roles, as the cruel Mr. Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre (1944), opposite Joan Fontaine who played Eyre. That same year he appeared in The Suspect as Charles Laughton's blackmailing next-door neighbour. In the 1950s and 1960s, he did much television, and also appeared as the malevolent Dr. Emil Zurich in Edward L. Cahn's The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959), and in an episode of Maverick, "Pappy" opposite James Garner the same year. An absolute professional, he was always on the set when needed, and impatient when delays in filming took place. Much in demand for his dry, sardonic delivery, Daniell moved easily from big-budget films, such as (uncredited) Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), to television without difficulty. In 1957, Daniell appeared as King Charles II of England in the NBC anthology series The Joseph Cotten Show in the episode "The Trial of Colonel Blood", with Michael Wilding in the title role. In the same year he played the instructing solicitor to Charles Laughton's leading counsel barrister in Witness for the Prosecution (1957). The actor claimed one of his favourite roles was as Tony Curtis' supervisor in the acclaimed Blake Edwards film Mister Cory (1957) at a time when the actor's career was clearly slowing down, but Daniell retained some of the best and most memorable lines in the movie, "A gentleman never grabs. Manners, Mister Cory. I find them a prerequisite in any circumstance."

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

1962
The Notorious Landlady

as    Stranger

1959
The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake

as    Dr. Emil Zurich

1958
From the Earth to the Moon

as    Morgana

1957
The Sun Also Rises

as    Doctor

1957
Les Girls

as    Judge

1957
Witness for the Prosecution

as    Mayhew

1956
Lust for Life

as    Theodorus van Gogh

1954
The Egyptian

as    Mekere

1950
Buccaneer's Girl

as    Capt. Duval

1949
Siren of Atlantis

as    Blades

1948
Wake of the Red Witch

as    Jacques Desaix

1947
The Exile

as    Colonel Ingram

1947
Song of Love

as    Franz Liszt

1946
The Bandit of Sherwood Forest

as    The Regent - William of Pembroke

1945
Hotel Berlin

as    Baron Von Stetten

1945
The Body Snatcher

as    Dr. Wolfe 'Toddy' MacFarlane

1945
Captain Kidd

as    King William III

1945
The Suspect

as    Mr. Simmons

1945
The Woman in Green

as    Professor James Moriarty

1944
Jane Eyre

as    Henry Brocklehurst

1943
Watch on the Rhine

as    Phili Von Ramme

1943
Sherlock Holmes in Washington

as    William Easter

1942
Four Jacks and a Jill

as    Bobo

1942
Reunion in France

as    Emile Fleuron

1942
The Great Impersonation

as    Frederick Seamon

1942
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror

as    Sir Anthony Lloyd

1942
Castle in the Desert

as    Watson King

1941
Dressed to Kill

as    Julian Davis

1940
The Great Dictator

as    Garbitsch

1940
The Philadelphia Story

as    Sidney Kidd