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James Neville Mason (; 15 May 190927 July 1984) was an English actor. He achieved considerable success in British cinema before becoming a star in Hollywood. He was nominated for three Academy Awards, three Golden Globes (winning once) and two BAFTA Awards throughout his career.
Mason began his career as a stage actor on the West End, before transitioning into leading man roles in films during the early 1940s. He was the top box-office attraction in the UK in 1944 and 1945; his British films included The Seventh Veil (1945) and The Wicked Lady (1945). He starred in Odd Man Out (1947), the first recipient of the BAFTA Award for Best British Film.
Moving to the United States in the following decade, Mason starred in such films as George Cukor's A Star Is Born (1954) - earning a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959), Stanley Kubrick's Lolita (1962), Warren Beatty's Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Sidney Lumet's The Verdict (1982).
He also starred in a number of successful British and American films from the 1950s to the early 1980s, including: (1951), Julius Caesar (1953), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Bigger Than Life (1956), Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), Georgy Girl (1966), Spring and Port Wine (1970), and The Boys from Brazil (1978). Following his death in 1984, his ashes were interred near the tomb of his close friend, fellow English actor Sir Charlie Chaplin.
The Masons lived in a house in its own grounds on Croft House Lane in Marsh. It was replaced in the mid-1970s by flats called Arncliffe Court. A small residential development opposite where the house once stood is now called James Mason Court.
Mason was educated at Marlborough College and took a first in architecture at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he became involved in stock theatre companies in his spare time. He had no formal acting training, and initially embarked upon it for fun.
From 1935 to 1938, Mason starred in many British quota quickies, starting with his first film Late Extra (1935), in which he played the lead. Albert Parker directed. Mason appeared in Twice Branded (1936); Troubled Waters (1936), also directed by Parker; Prison Breaker (1936); Blind Man's Bluff (1936), for Parker's The Secret of Stamboul (1936), and The Mill on the Floss (1936), an "A" movie. Mason had a key support role in Korda's Fire Over England (1937) with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. He was in another "A", The High Command (1937) directed by Thorold Dickinson, then went back to quickies, starring in Catch As Catch Can (1937), directed by Roy Kellino. Korda cast him as the villain in The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1937)
Mason began appearing in some televised productions of plays, made in the very early days of television: Cyrano de Bergerac (1938), The Moon in the Yellow River (1938), Bees on the Boat-Deck (1939), Square Pegs (1939), L'Avare (1939), and The Circle (1939). He returned to features with I Met a Murderer (1939) based on a story by Mason and Pamela Kellino, who also starred with Mason and whom he would marry. Her husband Roy Kellino directed.
Mason registered as a conscientious objector during World War II (causing his family to break with him for many years), but his tribunal did not exempt him on the requirement for non-combatant military service, which he also refused. He appealed against that aspect of the tribunal's decision,Thomson, David (15 May 2009) Every word a poison dart, The Guardian but it became irrelevant once he was included in a general exemption for film work.Eric Ambler, Mason, James Neville (1909–1984), rev. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2011. Retrieved 23 March 2013. In 1941–42 he returned to the stage to appear in Jupiter Laughs by A. J. Cronin. He established himself as a leading man in Britain in a series of films: The Patient Vanishes (1941); Hatter's Castle (1941) with Robert Newton and Deborah Kerr; The Night Has Eyes (1941); Alibi (1942) with Margaret Lockwood; Secret Mission (1942); Thunder Rock (1942) with Michael Redgrave; and The Bells Go Down (1943) with Tommy Trinder.
Mason became hugely popular for his brooding anti-heroes, and occasional outright villains, in the Gainsborough series of melodramas of the 1940s, starting with The Man in Grey (1943). The film was a huge hit and made him and co-stars Lockwood, Stewart Granger and Phyllis Calvert top-level stars. Mason starred in two wartime dramas, They Met in the Dark (1943) and Candlelight in Algeria (1944), then returned to Gainsborough melodrama with Fanny By Gaslight (1944) with Granger and Calvert; it was another big hit. He starred in Hotel Reserve (1944), a thriller, then did a ghost story for Gainsborough with Lockwood, A Place of One's Own (1945). Far more popular was a melodrama, They Were Sisters (1945). Robert Murphy, Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain 1939–48, p 207Gaumont-British Picture: Increased Net Profit, The Observer, 4 November 1945
Sydney Box cast Mason in a psychodrama about musicians, The Seventh Veil (1945), as the tyrannical guardian of pianist Ann Todd. It was a huge success in Britain and the US and demand for Mason was at a fever pitch. Exhibitors voted him the most popular star in Britain in each year between 1944 and 1947. They also declared him the most popular international star in 1946; he dropped to second place the following year. He was the most popular male star in Canada in 1948.
Mason had a relatively minor role in The Wicked Lady (1945) with Lockwood, a big hit. He then received his best reviews to date playing a mortally wounded IRA bank robber on the run in Carol Reed's Odd Man Out (1947). He turned producer with Sydney Box on The Upturned Glass (1947), which starred Mason with a script by Mason's wife. It was not particularly successful. Neither was Bathsheba, a play the Masons did on Broadway. Mason went to Hollywood for his first film, Caught (1949), directed by Max Ophüls, then played Gustave Flaubert in MGM's Madame Bovary (1949). He did another with Ophüls, The Reckless Moment (1949), and followed it with East Side, West Side (1949) with Barbara Stanwyck at MGM and One Way Street (1950) at Universal. He made Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) with Ava Gardner. None of these films were particularly successful.
Films at 20th Century Fox
Mason's Hollywood career was revived when he was cast as General Rommel in (1951), directed by Henry Hathaway. To do the film he agreed to sign a contract with 20th Century Fox for seven years at one film a year. Mason did a film at Republic Pictures written by his wife and directed by Roy Kellino, Lady Possessed (1951). At Fox, he played a spy in 5 Fingers (1951), directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. MGM hired him to play Rupert of Hentzau in The Prisoner of Zenda (1952) opposite Granger. He was in the lower budgeted Face to Face (1952) then went to Paramount to play a villainous sea captain opposite Alan Ladd in Botany Bay (1953).
Mason was one of many stars in MGM's The Story of Three Loves (1953). At Fox, he reprised his role as Rommel in The Desert Rats (1953), then he was reunited with Mankiewicz at MGM, playing Brutus in Julius Caesar (1953), opposite Marlon Brando. The film was very successful. Mason worked with Carol Reed in The Man Between (1953), then Fox used him as a villain again in Prince Valiant (1954). Mason did another film with a screenplay by his wife and directed by Roy Kellino, Charade (1954).
Warner Bros., hired him to play Judy Garland's leading man in the George Cukor directed musical drama film A Star Is Born (1954). He took the role after Cary Grant turned the role down. Mason won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Jack Moffitt of The Hollywood Reporter praised the film writing, " A Star Is Born is the perfect blend of drama and musical — of cinematic art and popular entertainment."
He went over to Disney to play Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), a huge hit which also starred Kirk Douglas. During 1954 and 1955, Mason was the host of some episodes of Lux Video Theatre on CBS television. Mason appeared with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in Forever, Darling (1956) then starred in and produced a film at Fox, Bigger Than Life (1956), directed by Nicholas Ray. Mason played a small-town school teacher driven insane by the effects of cortisone. He did another for Fox, the hugely popular melodrama, Island in the Sun (1957).
At Fox he had a huge hit returning to Jules Verne science fantasy as the determined Scottish scientist and explorer in Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1959), taking over a role meant for Clifton Webb. He did a comedy A Touch of Larceny (1960) and was Sir Edward Carson in The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960). He continued to appear on TV shows like The DuPont Show with June Allyson, Golden Showcase, Theatre '62 and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
He did The Marriage-Go-Round (1961), then played Dolores' sexually obsessive stepfather Humbert Humbert in Stanley Kubrick's version of Lolita (1962). He starred in Tiara Tahiti (1962), then Hero's Island (1962), which he also produced. He was in Torpedo Bay (1963).
In 1963 Mason settled in Switzerland, and embarked on a transatlantic career.Kevin Sweeney. James Mason: A Bio-Bibliography, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999, p.47 He began to drift into support roles, or second leads: the epic The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964); The Pumpkin Eater (1964), with Anne Bancroft; a river pirate who betrays Peter O'Toole's character in Lord Jim (1965); a Chinese noble in Genghis Khan (1965); The Uninhibited (1965); a guest role on Dr Kildare; James Leamington in the Swinging London-set Georgy Girl (1966), a role that earned him a second Academy Award nomination, this one for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
In 1967, Mason narrated the documentary The London Nobody Knows. An ardent cinephile on top of his career interests, Mason narrated two British documentary series supervised by Kevin Brownlow: Hollywood (1980), on the silent cinema and Unknown Chaplin (1983), devoted to out-take material from the films of Sir Charlie Chaplin. Mason had been a long-time neighbour and friend of the actor and director Charlie Chaplin. In the late 1970s, Mason became a mentor to up-and-coming actor Sam Neill.
He was in several episodes of ITV Play of the Week and he had the lead in The Deadly Affair (1967) for Sidney Lumet (playing a character based on George Smiley though it was renamed); and Stranger in the House (1968). He provided a supporting role in Duffy (1968), The Blue Max (1966) and Mayerling (1968) but was top billed in The Sea Gull (1968) for Sidney Lumet and starred as Bradley Morahan in Age of Consent (1969) for Michael Powell, a film which Mason also produced. The movie featured Helen Mirren's first major film role, and was Powell's last major film. He also had the star role in Spring and Port Wine (1970).
Mason's later 70s performances included Kidnap Syndicate (1975), The Left Hand of the Law (1975), Autobiography of a Princess (1975), Inside Out (1975), The Flower in His Mouth (1975), Voyage of the Damned (1976), Hot Stuff (1977), Cross of Iron (1977), Jesus of Nazareth (1977), The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go (1978), The Water Babies (1978), Heaven Can Wait (1978), The Boys from Brazil (1978), Murder by Decree (1979) (as Dr. Watson), The Passage (1979), Bloodline (1979) and as the Kurt Barlow's servant, Richard Straker, in Salem's Lot (1979).
Mason was in North Sea Hijack (1980), supporting Roger Moore, Evil Under the Sun (1982), Ivanhoe (1982), and A Dangerous Summer (1982). One of his last roles, that of the corrupt lawyer Ed Concannon in The Verdict (1982), opposite Paul Newman, earned him his third and final Oscar nomination, for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He had parts in Yellowbeard (1983), Alexandre (1983), and George Washington (1984).
Having completed playing the lead role in Dr. Fischer of Geneva (1985), adapted from Graham Greene's eponymous novella for the BBC, he stepped into the role in The Shooting Party originally meant for Paul Scofield, who was unable to continue after being seriously injured in an accident on the first day of shooting. This was to be Mason's final screen performance in a feature film. He did appear on television in A.D. (1985) and The Assisi Underground (1985).
In 1952, Mason purchased a house previously owned by Buster Keaton. There he discovered reels of nitrate film of some of Keaton's work that was considered Lost film, including The Boat (1921). He arranged to have the decomposing films transferred to safety stock, saving them from oblivion.
In his youth, Mason was a keen fan of his local Rugby League team, Huddersfield. In later years, he also followed the fortunes of Huddersfield Town.Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine:
Mason was married twice:
Mason's autobiography, Before I Forget, was published in 1981.
Clarissa Kaye Mason left her holdings to the religious guru Sathya Sai Baba, including the actor's ashes, which she had retained in their shared home. Mason's children sued Sai Baba and had Mason's ashes interred in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. The remains of Mason's friend Charlie Chaplin are in a tomb a few steps away. Mason's children specified that his headstone read: "Never say in grief you are sorry he's gone. Rather, say in thankfulness you are grateful he was here", words that were spoken to Portland Mason by U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy after the actor's death.
| Late Extra | Jim Martin | ||
| Twice Branded | Henry Hamilton | ||
| Prison Breaker | 'Bunny' Barnes | ||
| Troubled Waters | John Merriman | ||
| Blind Man's Bluff | Stephen Neville | ||
| The Secret of Stamboul | Larry | ||
| The Mill on the Floss | Tom Tulliver | ||
| Fire Over England | Hillary Vane | ||
| The High Command | Capt. Heverell | ||
| Catch As Catch Can | Robert Leyland | ||
| The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel | Jean Tallien | ||
| I Met a Murderer | Mark Warrow | ||
| This Man Is Dangerous | Mick Cardby | aka The Patient Vanishes | |
| Hatter's Castle | Dr Renwick | ||
| The Night Has Eyes | Stephen Deremid | aka Terror House | |
| Alibi | Andre Laurent | ||
| Secret Mission | Raoul de Carnot | ||
| Thunder Rock | Streeter | ||
| The Bells Go Down | Ted Robbins | ||
| The Man in Grey | Lord Rohan | ||
| They Met in the Dark | Richard Francis Heritage | ||
| Candlelight in Algeria | Alan Thurston | ||
| Fanny by Gaslight | Lord Manderstoke | aka Man of Evil | |
| Hotel Reserve | Peter Vadassy | ||
| A Place of One's Own | Smedhurst | ||
| They Were Sisters | Geoffrey Lee | ||
| The Seventh Veil | Nicholas | ||
| The Wicked Lady | Capt. Jerry Jackson | ||
| Odd Man Out | Johnny McQueen | ||
| The Upturned Glass | Michael Joyce | ||
| Caught | Larry Quinada | ||
| Madame Bovary | Gustave Flaubert | ||
| The Reckless Moment | Martin Donnelly | ||
| East Side, West Side | Brandon Bourne | ||
| One Way Street | Frank Matson | ||
| Pandora and the Flying Dutchman | Hendrik van der Zee | ||
| Field Marshal Erwin Rommel | |||
| Lady Possessed | Jimmy del Palma | Also producer and writer | |
| 5 Fingers | Ulysses Diello | ||
| Face to Face | The Captain ('The Secret Sharer') | ||
| The Prisoner of Zenda | Rupert of Hentzau | ||
| Botany Bay | Capt. Paul Gilbert | ||
| The Story of Three Loves | Charles Coutray | Segment: "The Jealous Lover" | |
| The Desert Rats | Field Marshal Erwin Rommel | ||
| Julius Caesar | Brutus | ||
| The Man Between | Ivo Kern | ||
| The Tell-Tale Heart | Narrator | Voice; Animated short subject | |
| Prince Valiant | Sir Brack | ||
| Charade | The Murderer / Maj. Linden / Jonah Watson | Also producer and writer | |
| A Star Is Born | Norman Maine | ||
| 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea | Captain Nemo | ||
| Forever, Darling | The Guardian Angel | ||
| Bigger Than Life | Ed Avery | Also producer and writer | |
| Island in the Sun | Maxwell Fleury | ||
| Cry Terror! | Jim Molner | ||
| The Decks Ran Red | Capt. Edwin Rummill | ||
| North by Northwest | Phillip Vandamm | ||
| A Touch of Larceny | Cmdr. Max Easton | ||
| Journey to the Center of the Earth | Sir Oliver S. Lindenbrook | ||
| The Trials of Oscar Wilde | Sir Edward Carson | ||
| The Marriage-Go-Round | Paul Delville | ||
| Escape from Zahrain | Johnson | Uncredited | |
| Lolita | Prof. Humbert Humbert | ||
| Tiara Tahiti | Capt. Brett Aimsley | ||
| Hero's Island | Jacob Weber | ||
| Torpedo Bay | Captain Blayne | ||
| The Fall of the Roman Empire | Timonides | ||
| The Pumpkin Eater | Bob Conway | ||
| Lord Jim | Gentleman Brown | ||
| Genghis Khan | Kam Ling | ||
| The Uninhibited | Pascal Regnier | ||
| Georgy Girl | James Leamington | ||
| The Blue Max | General Count von Klugermann | ||
| Dare I Weep, Dare I Mourn | Otto Hoffman | ||
| The Deadly Affair | Charles Dobbs | ||
| The London Nobody Knows | Narrator | Documentary | |
| Stranger in the House | John Sawyer | (also known as Cop Out) | |
| Duffy | Charles Calvert | ||
| Mayerling | Emperor Franz-Joseph | ||
| The Sea Gull | Trigorin, a writer | ||
| Age of Consent | Bradley Morahan | ||
| Spring and Port Wine | Rafe Crompton | ||
| Cold Sweat | Captain Ross | ||
| The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go | Y.Y. Go | ||
| Bad Man's River | Francisco Paco Montero | ||
| Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill! | Alan Hamilton | ||
| Child's Play | Jerome Mailey | ||
| John Keats: His Life and Death | Narrator (voice) | ||
| The Last of Sheila | Phillip | ||
| The Mackintosh Man | Sir George Wheeler | ||
| 11 Harrowhouse | Charles D. Watts | ||
| Great Expectations | Abel Magwitch | ||
| The Marseille Contract | Jacques Brizard | Released as The Destructors | |
| The Year of the Wildebeest | Narrator | Documentary | |
| Mandingo | Warren Maxwell | ||
| Kidnap Syndicate | Fillippini | ||
| The Left Hand of the Law | Senator Leandri | ||
| Autobiography of a Princess | Cyril Sahib | ||
| Inside Out | Ernst Furben | ||
| The Flower in His Mouth | Bellocampo | ||
| People of the Wind | Narrator | Documentary | |
| Voyage of the Damned | Juan Ramos | ||
| Fear in the City | Prosecutor | ||
| 1977 | Cross of Iron | Oberst Brandt | |
| Narrator | Documentary | ||
| The Water Babies | Mr Grimes Voice of Killer Shark | ||
| Heaven Can Wait | God | ||
| The Boys from Brazil | Eduard Seibert | ||
| Murder by Decree | John H. Watson | ||
| The Passage | Prof. John Bergson | ||
| Bloodline | Sir Alec Nichols | ||
| 1980 | North Sea Hijack | Admiral Brinsden | |
| Evil Under the Sun | Odell Gardener | ||
| A Dangerous Summer | George Engels | ||
| The Verdict | Ed Concannon | ||
| Socrates | Socrates | ||
| Yellowbeard | Captain Hughes | ||
| Alexandre | The Father | ||
| 1984 | Dr. Fischer of Geneva | Dr Fischer | |
| The Shooting Party | Sir Randolph Nettleby | Posthumous release | |
| The Assisi Underground | Bishop Nicolini | Final film role; posthumous release | |
| 1956 | G.E. Summer Originals | Season 1 Episode 2: "Duel at Dawn" | |
| 1962 | The Alfred Hitchcock Hour | Warren Barrow | Season 1 Episode 5: "Captive Audience" |
| 1973 | Dr. John Polidori | TV miniseries | |
| 1976 | Origins of the Mafia | Vianisi | TV miniseries |
| Jesus of Nazareth | Joseph of Arimathea | TV miniseries | |
| 1979 | Salem's Lot | Richard K. Straker | TV miniseries |
| 1980 | Hollywood | Narrator | TV documentary miniseries |
| 1982 | Ivanhoe | Isaac of York | TV film |
| 1983 | Don't Eat the Pictures | Demon | TV special |
| George Washington | Edward Braddock | TV miniseries | |
| 1985 | A.D. | Tiberius | TV miniseries; posthumous release |
| The Old Vic, London |
| Claudio |
| Yasha |
| Francisco |
| Merriman |
| Lennox |
| Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Broadway |
| Longacre Theatre, Broadway |
| Banquo's Chair |
| Odd Man Out |
| The Queen's Ring |
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