Charles Laughton, Kent Taylor and Charles Bickford prepare for the movie White Woman, directed by Stuart Walker for Paramount. Photo by Hulton Archive.
Charles Laughton with his wife Elsa Lanchester at the movie premiere of Vessel of Wrath, also known as The Beachcomber at the Regal in Marble Arch, London. Photo by Fox Photos.
Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara in costume for the Alfred Hitchcock movie Jamaica Inn at Elstree Studios, London. Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive.
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Movie Dir. Garson Kanin (far left) with actors Carole Lombard and Charles Laughton as they view a screening of their movie They Knew what They Wanted at RKO Studios. Photo by Peter Stackpole.
(Left to right) Charles Laughton, director David Lean and John Mills during a break in filming of Hobson's Choice. Photo by Popperfoto via Getty Images.
Charles Laughton and Vivien Leigh entertain the theatre queue outside Holborn Empire, playing out their parts in Laughton production St Martin's Lane. Photo by Hulton Archive.
A group of actors, including Bing Crosby, Charles Laughton, and Ricardo Cortez, sitting outdoors at a studio backlot, for Paramount Pictures. Photo via John Kobal Foundation.
(Charles Laughton gulps beer and chomps on mutton, in his ...)
Charles Laughton gulps beer and chomps on mutton, in his first of many iconic screen roles, as King Henry VIII, the ultimate anti-husband. Alexander Korda's first major international success is a raucous, entertaining, even poignant peek into the boudoirs of the infamous king and his six wives.
(Elizabeth Barrett, the frail daughter of a stern Victoria...)
Elizabeth Barrett, the frail daughter of a stern Victorian-era gentleman, awakens to the world and finds love when she meets the dashing romantic poet Robert Browning.
(Charles Laughton stars in this hilarious tale of Marmaduk...)
Charles Laughton stars in this hilarious tale of Marmaduke Ruggles, a stuffy British butler, traded in a poker game from an English Duke to a wealthy and rowdy American, Egbert Floud.
(Screen legends Fredric March and Charles Laughton star in...)
Screen legends Fredric March and Charles Laughton star in this beloved classic based on Victor Hugo's novel as an ex-convict and the police inspector who relentlessly pursues him.
(In 1642, Rembrandt van Rijn is at the height of his fame....)
In 1642, Rembrandt van Rijn is at the height of his fame. Then, his beloved wife and model, Saskia, dies. Rembrandt is devastated, and when commissioned to paint an important work, creates a dark, brooding piece, considered highly inappropriate by his creditors. Now verging on bankruptcy and cast out by those who previously supported him, he is rescued by a new love...
(On St. Martin's Lane in London, a popular spot for street...)
On St. Martin's Lane in London, a popular spot for street performers, a busker works a poor girl into his act. As her popularity rises, he guides her to stardom even though it means sacrificing his love for her.
(Considered by many as the greatest adaptation of the Vict...)
Considered by many as the greatest adaptation of the Victor Hugo classic novel about the deformed bell ringer of Notre Dame who rescues beautiful gypsy woman and falls in love with her.
(Based on the novel by Daphne Du Maurier, a young woman di...)
Based on the novel by Daphne Du Maurier, a young woman discovers her uncle heads a gang of ship-wreckers and murderers under the secret patronage of the local squire.
(A charming collection of five vignettes which follow the ...)
A charming collection of five vignettes which follow the evolving story of a formal tailcoat and its various owners. Starring Charles Boyer, Rita Hayworth, Ginger Rogers, and Henry Fonda.
(A timid teacher finds the courage to defy Nazi occupiers....)
A timid teacher finds the courage to defy Nazi occupiers. Charles Laughton and Maureen O'Hara star in and Jean Renoir directs a profound portrait of the heroism of everyday people.
(Charles Laughton (as the ghost), Robert Young and Margare...)
Charles Laughton (as the ghost), Robert Young and Margaret O'Brien conjure peals of merry laughter out of an exuberant, ingenious comedy based on an Oscar Wilde tale and cleverly directed by Jules Dassin.
(In this unhistorical account, Captain William Kidd is alr...)
In this unhistorical account, Captain William Kidd is already a clever, ruthless pirate when, in 1699, he tricks the king into commissioning him as escort for a treasure ship from India.
(A dozen top stars, including Charles Laughton, Marilyn Mo...)
A dozen top stars, including Charles Laughton, Marilyn Monroe and Anne Baxter, and five famed directors, including Howard Hawks and Henry Koster join forces to present filmed versions of the best stories of O. Henry, all narrated by John Steinbeck.
(An unsung comic triumph from David Lean, the movie stars ...)
An unsung comic triumph from David Lean, the movie stars Charles Laughton as the harrumphing Henry Hobson, the owner of a boot shop in late Victorian northern England. When his haughty, independent daughter decides to forge her own path, romantically and professionally, with none other than Henry's prized bootsmith, father and daughter find themselves head-to-head in a fiery match of wills.
(Robert Mitchum stars in an unforgettable role as a psycho...)
Robert Mitchum stars in an unforgettable role as a psychopathic preacher in relentless pursuit of two children who have their dead father's stolen fortune hidden in a doll. Shelley Winters co-stars.
(When a wealthy widow is murdered, her married suitor is a...)
When a wealthy widow is murdered, her married suitor is accused of the crime. His only hope for acquittal is the testimony of his wife but his alibi shatters when she reveals some shocking secrets of her own!
Stanley Kubrick directs Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier and Jean Simmons in this Academy Award-winning classic story of a bold gladiator slave who takes on Imperial Rome.
Charles Laughton was a British-born American actor and director. Beginning on the stage, including the Shakespearean parts at the Old Vic, he then incarnated a wide diversity of characters on Broadway and Hollywood as well as in many British pictures, including a substantial role in The Private Life of Henry VIII. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, George Bernard Shaw's Don Juan in Hell, and The Night of the Hunter are among his works as a director.
Background
Ethnicity:
Laughton's mother was of Irish origin and and his father was of English one.
Charles Laughton was born on July 1, 1899, in Scarborough, York, United Kingdom. He was a son of Robert Laughton and Eliza Laughton (maiden name Conlon), both local hoteliers.
Education
Charles Laughton attended Scarborough College for a while, a school for boys, before being sent to a prestigious Jesuit school, Stonyhurst College from which he graduated in 1915.
Expected to continue in the family hotel business, Laughton instead followed his passion for performing. Coming against his parents' wishes, he became a student of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1925. Claude Rains, a stage and film actor, was among his mentors. Laughton graduated with a gold medal a year later.
Charles Laughton served during the First World War, from 1917 to 1918. He was first a member of the 2/1st Battalion of the Huntingdonshire Cyclist Battalion, and then joined the 7th Battalion of the Northamptonshire Regiment. After discharge, Laughton came back to his hometown where he worked for a while in a family hotel business fulfilling his yearning for performing in amateur stage productions.
Charles Laughton made his professional debut on the stage in The Government Inspector produced in 1926 at the Gaiety Theatre, London. The talent that he demonstrated to the public provided him with a number of parts, often lead ones, in such theatricals as Chekov's The Three Sisters, The Silver Tassie, Arnold Bennett's Mr. Prohack, and Mr. Pickwick. The first appearance on the screen, in a two-part filmed version of Wells's play Blue Bottles, came two years after Laughton's stage debut. In 1931, the actor made a trip to New York City where he played in several successful productions and shortly after signed a contract with Paramount Pictures.
In 1932, Laughton appeared in six Hollywood movies, masterly incarnating diametrically opposite characters, from a fool in Devil and the Deep to a well affected manufacturer in The Old Dark House. The main part in The Private Life of Henry VIII that he took upon his return to London provided Laughton with the Academy Award. The picture also established his long collaboration with a director and producer Alexander Korda.
The acclaim that Laughton received after the movie, in the United States as in the United Kingdom, secured him a status of an authority in playing historical and costume roles. The success on the screen was paralleled with a range of major parts on the stage during the 1930s, in particular, in Macbeth, The Cherry Orchard, The Tempest, and Measure for Measure played till 1934 at the Old Vic Theatre. Laughton continued to incarnate a wide diversity of characters throughout the decade. Javert in Les Misérables, Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty, a gentle British butler in Ruggles of Red Gap, and Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame were among the important parts of the period.
In 1937, along with Erich Pommer, Laughton established a movie company, Mayflower Pictures Production. Two years later, the actor relocated permanently to the United States.
By the 1940s, acting in movies became a major revenue stream for Charles Laughton. In the middle of the decade, he collaborated with Bertolt Brecht on an English version of his Galileo and played the main role in its 1947 premiere in Los Angeles and then in New York City. It was at the end of the decade that Laughton initiated his tours of reading from great literature. So, as a member of The First Drama Quartet, the actor presented to the public George Bernard Shaw's Don Juan in Hell and Stephen Vincent Benét's John Brown's Body.
The parts that Laughton interpreted mellowed within the years of his professional path and became much warmer by the decline of his career. His personages in Spartacus and Advise & Consent are proof of that. The actor also tried himself as a director, both in movies and on the stage, by the end of his career. The Night of the Hunter of 1955 was an example.
(On St. Martin's Lane in London, a popular spot for street...)
1938
Religion
Charles Laughton was brought up as a Roman Catholic.
Views
Quotations:
"Method actors give you a photograph. Real actors give you an oil painting."
"Hollywood is a goofy place. But I like it. It's the perfect mummers' home. If one weren't a little mad one wouldn't be there."
"They can't censor the gleam in my eye."
"I have a face like the behind of an elephant."
"I have a face that would stop a sundial."
"Never not dare to hang yourself. That's the only way you grow in your profession. You must continually attempt things that you think are beyond you, or you get into a complete rut."
Personality
It was important for Charles Laughton as an actor to find work in which he could believe. The actor often felt uncertain about his unconventional appearance usually considered far from the common standards of beauty. Though, it was a good dramatic asset of the actor as his career proved. Laughton also had problems related to his untraditional sexual identity throughout his professional path. His bisexuality was corroborated by several of his contemporaries and is generally accepted by Hollywood historians.
Quotes from others about the person
He was probably the greatest film actor who came from that period of time. He had something quite remarkable. His generosity as an actor; he fed himself into that work. As an actor, you cannot take your eyes off him." - Daniel Day-Lewis, actor
Connections
Charles Laughton married Elsa Sullivan Lanchester on February 10, 1939. They didn't have children.
Charles Laughton: A Difficult Actor
A definitive biography of one of the twentieth century's finest actors and directors, written with great insight and verve by Simon Callow.