Actor Charles Lawton: filmography

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Charles Luton is an actor famous in the first half of the last century. He entered the history of cinema as the first Englishman to win an Oscar. On account of Charles Lawton, many characters from classical literary works played on the stage and in the cinema and several historical figures. For one of these roles, he received a prestigious film award. The biography and creative path of the actor is the topic of today's article.

Career start

Charles Lawton was born in 1899 in Great Britain. At the age of twenty-six, he played his first role on the stage in a play based on Gogol's work The Inspector General. Two years later, he made his film debut. Charles Lawton has appeared in three short films. Then his filmography was replenished with episodic roles in such films as The Old Dark House, Piccadilly. The first one is a Hollywood project. Although Charles Lawton played a minor role in this picture, it was she who brought him fame.

Old Dark House

The plot is based on the mysterious story of wanderers who once ended up in a rather strange house. The inhabitants of the mansion, in which darkness invariably reigns, are mysterious people and not without oddities that terrify guests. Later it turns out that the most dangerous inhabitant of the house is upstairs and suffers from pyromania, for which he has been imprisoned for several years. But at any moment he could be free.

Charles Lawton played a man who happened to be in a dark old house by accident - William Porterhouse. After the release of this picture, the actor was noticed in Hollywood.

It should be said that he never adhered to a certain type. The actor had an impressive figure, but at the same time he was quite mobile. Charles Lawton had a comedic talent. But he was also easily given dramatic images. Theater critics noted his work in such productions as The Cherry Orchard, Galileo Galilei.

In 1933, he played a major role in the film The Private Life of Henry VIII. It was for this work that Charles Lawton was awarded the Oscar.

Since 1940, the actor, having received American citizenship, lived in the United States. Here he took part in various Hollywood projects. Charles Lawton made his directorial debut in 1955 with The Night of the Hunter. His later works include the films "Witnesses for the Prosecution", "Councils of Consent". For the performance of the title role in the latter, the actor was nominated posthumously for the British Academy Film Award. Below is a list of the most famous films featuring Charles Lawton.

Movies

In 1939, the film adaptation of the great work "Notre Dame Cathedral" was released. Hugo's novel filmmakers transferred to the screen more than once. But William Dieterle's interpretation is considered today by many critics to be the best. Lawton played the title role in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. His partners on the set were Cedric Hardwick, Maureen O'Hara, Alan Marshall. Charles Lawton's Quasimodo is one of the most famous film images of the first half of the 20th century. Three years before the release of this film, the actor played the role of the famous Dutch painter in the film Rembrandt. According to the US National Board of Film Critics, the picture is one of the best films of European directors.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Rembrandt were created before the actor was fully committed to Hollywood. In the forties and fifties, Lawton acted in the following films:

• "Eternity and one day" (played the role of the butler).
• "The Canterville Ghost" (played by an otherworldly creature).
• "Suspect".
• Arc de Triomphe.
• The Paradine Affair.
• "Bribery".
• "Big Clock".
• "Baby Bess".
• Spartak.

A screen adaptation of Remarque's novel "Arc de Triomphe" was released in 1948. Starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. Charles Lawton played a negative character - the Gestapo von Haacke.

Private life

With my futureCharles Lawton met his wife on the set of a short film in 1928. He played in the film with Elsa Lanchester, known for her role in the film "Bride of Frankenstein". They lived a long life together, but they never had children. In her declining years, the actress published a book of memoirs in which she explained this circumstance by the homosexuality of her husband. Charles Lawton passed away in 1962 as a result of cancer. Buried in Hollywood.