- Born
- Died
- Height5′ 7½″ (1.72 m)
- Charles Laughton was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, to Eliza (Conlon) and Robert Laughton, hotel keepers of Irish and English descent, respectively. He was educated at Stonyhurst (a highly esteemed Jesuit college in England) and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (received gold medal). His first appearance on stage was in 1926. Laughton formed own film company, Mayflower Pictures Corp., with Erich Pommer, in 1937. He became an American citizen 1950. A consummate artist, Laughton achieved great success on stage and film, with many staged readings (particularly of George Bernard Shaw) to his credit. Laughton died in Hollywood, California, aged 63.- IMDb Mini Biography By: <z115aa@tamvm1.tamu.edu>
- Charles Laughton was born on July 1, 1899 in Yorkshire, England. He was the son of Robert Laughton, a Yorkshire hotel keeper. His mother, Eliza (nee Conlon) Laughton, was a devout Roman Catholic of Irish ancestry, and raised her children in that faith. Laughton briefly attended Scarborough College, a local boys' school in his area before attending Stonyhurst College, an English Jesuit school.
Laughton was expected to take over the family business after graduating from Stonyhurst at age 16. His passion, however, like in the performance arts and he enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1925. In 1926, Laughton made his inaugural professional stage appearance in London in the production of The Government Inspector. This role allowed him to show his versatility as a thespian, by portraying both villainous and virtuous characters.
After many successful stage performances, Laughton made his film debut in the 1928 British silent comedy Blue Bottles (1928), where he would meet his future wife Elsa Lanchester. In 1931, Laughton made his New York stage debut which led to many film offers, and he would star in his first Hollywood film the following year, the 1932 The Old Dark House (1932). Laughton's true breakout role occurred in the 1933 The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), for which Laughton won the Academy Award for Best Actor for portraying the titular King Henry VIII, upon whom the film was loosely based.
Laughton soon gave up the stage for films and would go on to star in many films, including White Woman (1933), The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), Les Misérables (1935), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Ruggles of Red Gap (1935), Rembrandt (1936), This Land Is Mine (1943), The Suspect (1944), It Started with Eve (1941), The Paradine Case (1947), The Big Clock (1948), Arch of Triumph (1948), The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949), O. Henry's Full House (1952), Witness for the Prosecution (1957) and Spartacus (1960).
In 1955, Laughton made his directorial debut on the big screen with The Night of the Hunter (1955), which starred Robert Mitchum and Shelley Winters. Although the film was a critical and box-office flop, it has since been cited by many as one of the greatest films of the 1950s by many critics. It has also been selected for preservation by the National Film Registry. This would become the only feature-film Laughton directed in his career.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Kyle Perez
- SpouseElsa Lanchester(February 9, 1929 - December 15, 1962) (his death)
- Often played arrogant characters, typecast for these roles early in his career by playing King Henry VIII and Captain Bligh
- Powerful, penetrating shouting voice, developed during his stage-acting time
- Robert Mitchum once stated that Laughton was the best director he had ever worked for, ironic in that Laughton never directed another movie after The Night of the Hunter (1955) with Mitchum.
- Discovered actress Maureen O'Hara at age 18 and immediately signed her under contract as his protégée.
- In a memoir written after his death, Laughton's widow, Elsa Lanchester, stated they never had children because he was homosexual. However, according to Maureen O'Hara, Laughton once told her that not having children was his biggest regret, and that it was because Elsa could not bear children as a result of an botched abortion she had early in her career while performing burlesque. Lanchester admitted becoming pregnant by Laughton and aborting the child in her autobiography.
- A highly regarded drama teacher, whose students included Albert Finney and William Phipps, Laughton would play Billie Holiday records for his students as an illustration of vocal inflection techniques.
- Was the first actor to play Roman Emperor Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, in the aborted film version of Robert Graves' I, Claudius (1937). Production was suspended after Laughton's co-star Merle Oberon, playing his wife Messalina, was involved in an automobile accident in which she crashed through the car's windshield and sustained cuts to her face. The decision was made to shut down the production and the costs were reimbursed to producer Alexander Korda's London Films by Lloyds of London.
- They can't censor the gleam in my eye.
- I have a face like the behind of an elephant.
- It's got so that every time I walk into a restaurant, I get not only soup but an impersonation of Captain Bligh.
- 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.
- [on Robert Mitchum] All the tough talk is blind. He's a literate, gracious, kind man and he speaks beautifully - when he wants to. Bob would make the best Macbeth of any actor living.
- Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952) - $25,000
- Island of Lost Souls (1932) - $2,250 per week
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