CAUSE: In 1944 Tod Browning became one of the few people to read his own obituary when Variety prematurely killed him off. Following his wife’s death Browning lived a solitary life, dying of cancer in Santa Monica, California.
Frank Brownlee
Born October 11, 1874
Died February 10, 1948
Silent support. Born in Dallas, Texas, Brownlee was an early supporting actor in Hal Roach comedies. He made more than 100 films and worked, often uncredited, in many different cinematic genres from comedy to cowboys, to crime to romances. He worked on Charley Chase’s Be Your Age (1926) as Mr Blaylock and Bigger And Better Blondes (1927). He appeared with Laurel & Hardy in With Love And Hisses (filmed March 1927, released August 28, 1927) as Major General Rohrer, Sailors Beware (filmed April 1927, released September 25, 1927) as Captain Bull, The 2nd Hundred Years (filmed June 1927, released October 8, 1927) as a prison warder, Do Detectives Think? (filmed May 1927, released November 20, 1927) as the detective agency boss, Pack Up Your Troubles (filmed May–June 1, 1932, released September 23, 1932) as the drill sergeant and The Midnight Patrol (filmed June 24–July 6, 1933, released August 3, 1933) as Police Chief Ramsbottom. Other comedies included Country Fair (1941) and Ice-Capades Revue (1942) as Mr Sawyer. His early films included: The Fireman And The Girl (1914), She Left Without Her Trunks (1916), Sold For Marriage (1916) as Nicholas, Intolerance (1916) as the Girl’s brother and The Call Of The Past (1916). He appeared in Westerns such as The Half-Breed (1916) as Winslow Wynn, Brass Buttons (1919) as Terence Callahan, Desert Gold (1919) as Jonas Warren, Riders Of The Dawn (1920) as Glidden, Tombstone Canyon (1932) as Alf Sykes, Terror Trail (1933) as Sheriff Judell, Tumbling Tumbleweeds (1935) as Cattleman, The Desert Trail (1935) as the Sheriff of Rattlesnake Gulch, a doctor in Trail Of The Vigilantes (1940), Three Faces West (1940) as Bill, Arizona (1940) as Weaver, Riders Of Death Valley (1941) as Slim, The Apache Kid (1941) as Harry Castleman, A Missouri Outlaw (1941) as Dairyman Jensen, Arizona Terrors (1942) as Henry Adams, a rancher in Man From Cheyenne (1942), Denny Stagecoach Buckaroo (1942) as Higgins, a Council member in Jesse James, Jr (1942), Romance On The Range (1942) as a member of the lynch mob, In Old California (1942) as a man on the street, Sons Of The Pioneers (1942) as a hired hand, The Sombrero Kid (1942) as Mayor Lem Barnett, Shadows On The Sage (1942) as Johnson and Dead Man’s Gulch (1943) as Stevens. He was in sci-fi films including Mysterious Doctor Satan (1940) as Panamint Pete, war films including Me Und Gott as The Butler/August Weber, and dramas such as Mentioned In Confidence (1917) as Mr Leigh, The Martinache Marriage (1917) as Roscoe Vandercourt, The Mysterious Mrs Musslewhite (1917) as Dr Woodman, Wild Sumac (1917) as Lupin, The Best Man (1917) as Captain Hale, The Ship Of Doom (1917) as ‘Sundown’ Shattuck, Her Moment (1918) as Victor Dravich, The Return Of Mary (1918) as John Graham, The Vanity Pool (1918) as Jarvis Flint, Girl From Nowhere as Klondyke Jim, Paid In Advance (1919) as a gold dust barker, The Valley Of Tomorrow (1920) as Fang Morgan and Gallant Lady (1942) as Luke Walker. He was in crime/mystery films including The Phantom Shotgun (1917) as Hamilton Forbes, The Inspirations Of Harry Larrabee (1917) as Batonyi, The Mysterious Mr Tiller (1917) as Ramon Mordant, The Double Standard (1917) as Editor George Ferguson, $5,000 Reward (1918) as Ackley, The Empty Cab (1918) as Big Ed, The Lincoln Highwayman (1919) as Captain Claver, Boston Blackie (1923) as Warden Benton and Lucky Devils (1941) as the farmer. He appeared in adventure films including The Little Pirate (1917) as John Baird, June Madness (1917), Miss Adventure (1919) as Bog Nichols, The Brute Breaker (1919) as Norres and South Of Tahiti (1941) as the harbour master.
CAUSE: He died in Los Angeles, California, aged 73.
Nigel Bruce
Born September 4, 1895
Died October 8, 1953
Forever Dr Watson. Despite being the epitome of the English gentleman, William Nigel Ernle Bruce was born in Ensenada, Mexico, while his parents were on holiday. (Coincidentally, that other “Englishman” and Bruce’s dear friend, Basil Rathbone, was born in South Africa.) Bruce’s father was Sir William Waller Bruce, 10th Bt. (1856–1912) and his mother Angelica Mary (d. 1917), the daughter of General George Selby, an officer in the Royal Artillery. Bruce was educated at The Grange, Stevenage, and Abingdon School and was training to be a stockbroker when the First World War broke out. He joined the Honourable Artillery Company but was badly wounded. He rose to be a captain in the Somerset light infantry’s home battalion, but his injuries caused him to be invalided out of the service. Back in civvy street he became a much in demand actor, making his stage début in 1920. He made his first (of nearly 80) films – the British silent film Red Aces – in 1929. He moved permanently to America five years later and became a leading member of the English raj in Tinseltown. It was for his portrayal of the bumbling Dr John Watson in the Sherlock Holmes films that he will always be remembered. They were The Hound Of The Baskervilles (1939), The Adventures Of Sherlock Holmes (1939), Sherlock Holmes And The Voice Of Terror (1942), Sherlock Holmes And The Secret Weapon (1942), Sherlock Holmes Faces Death (1943), Sherlock Holmes In Washington (1943), The Pearl Of Death (1944), The Spider Woman (1944), The Scarlet Claw (1944), The House Of Fear (1945), The Woman In Green (1945), Pursuit To Algiers (1945), Terror By Night (1946) and Dressed To Kill (1946). The first two films were made by 20th Century Fox but they dropped the films in 1940. Universal picked up the baton and set the stories in a contemporary era so that Holmes and Watson could fight the Germans. Bruce and Rathbone also played the sleuthing duo in more than 200 wireless programmes between 1938 and 1945. His other films included playing the Prince of Wales in The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), Treasure Island as Squire Trelawney, She as Professor Holly, Joseph Sedley in Becky Sharp (1935), RKO’s version of Vanity Fair which was the first feature to be filmed in three-strip Technicolor, The Charge Of The Light Brigade (1936) as Sir Benjamin Warrenton, Suez (1937) as Sir Malcolm Cameron, A Dispatch From Reuter’s (1940) as Sir Randolph Persham, Hitchcock’s Rebecca (1940) and Suspicion (1941), Frenchman’s Creek (1944) as Lord Godolphin, Dragonwyck (1946), Charlie Chaplin’s Limelight (1952) as Postant, the 3-D jungle adventure Bwana Devil (1952) as Dr Angus McLean and the posthumously released World For Ransom (1954) as Governor Coutts. On May 19, 1921, he married the actress Violet Campbell (b. Hertfordshire, April 24, 1892 as Violet Mary Pauline Shelton, d. London, January 3, 1970) and had two daughters, Pauline and Jennifer.
CAUSE: Preparing to be reunited with Basil Rathbone on the stage, Nigel Bruce died aged 58 of a heart attack in St John’s Hospital, Santa Monica, California. He was cremated at the Chapel of the Pines crematorium, Los Angeles.
Yul Brynner
(YUL BRYNER)
Born July 11, 1920
Died October 10, 1985
Egotistical baldy. Yul Brynner was a man known for just three roles: King Mongkut in The King & I (1956) and the gunslingers Chris in The Magnificent Seven (1960) and the robot in Westworld (1973) yet he maintained an air of mystery about much of his life. Until his son told the real story many speculated that Brynner may have been five years older than the date given above and it was thought he was born on Sakalin Island off Siberia. He refused to confirm or deny it, saying, “Just call me a nice clean-cut Mongolian boy,” adding, “People don’t know my real self and they’re not about to find out.” He was actually born in Vladivostok and moved to Paris in 1934 so that his elder sister could have a chance of a singing career. Brynner spoke French when discussing fashion or the arts but always used English for business. He began in show business on June 15, 1935, as a singer and guitarist in a gypsy orchestra. Always keen for a physical challenge he became a trapeze artist for two years at the Cirque d’Hiver, playing the part of a sad clown who made dreadful errors but saved himself just before he hit the ground. One day he failed to save himself and spent seven months in a plaster cast. In 1941 he travelled to America and began studying with Michael Chekhov, with whom Marilyn Monroe would also study. The following year he began to earn a living strumming his guitar in New York
nightclubs and at private parties. When work was scarce he earned his money as a nude model. Brynner married actress Virginia Gilmore on September 6, 1944, and his only son, Rock, was born on December 23, 1946. Brynner made his film début in 1949, appearing in the little-known Port Of New York. It was to be another seven years before he stepped in front of the cameras again. On February 26, 1951, Brynner took the part at the Shubert Theater in New Haven, Connecticut, that was to bring him international fame and an Oscar – the monarch in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s The King & I. He played the role for three years on Broadway, though when the film version came to be made he originally wanted to direct and for Marlon Brando to play the lead. Eventually he was persuaded to take the lead part himself. Dinah Shore wanted the role of Mrs Anna but Brynner held out for Deborah Kerr. He also shaved his head for the part, a look he adopted for the rest of his life. The major rival for his Oscar nomination was Kirk Douglas in Lust For Life (1956) but he also received fierce competition from Laurence Olivier for Richard III (1955), Rock Hudson for Giant (1956) and, with the Academy’s liking for sentiment, the late James Dean, also for Giant. Brynner’s hand was considerably strengthened by strong performances as Pharaoh Rameses in The Ten Commandments (1956), the con man in Anastasia (1956) and by winning the coveted role of Dmitri in The Brothers Kamarazov (1958). Within a year Brynner had shot into the Top 10 Box-Office Draws list. Redbook called him “The most exciting male on the screen since Rudolph Valentino” and over a dozen teenage boys were suspended from an Iowa school for having their heads shaved à la Yul. When asked why he thought he had been so successful, Brynner replied: “I’m not of the can-kicking, shovel-carrying, ear-scratching torn T-shirt school of acting. There are very few real men in the movies these days. Yet being a real man is the most important quality an actor can offer on the screen.” Brynner was never to be nominated again, although he did present three Oscars to other winners. In 1960 he was divorced by Virginia Gilmore and five days later, on March 31, 1960, he married Doris Kleiner. (They had a daughter in 1962.) In the spring of that year he was cast as Chris, the leader of a group of cowboy mercenaries, in The Magnificent Seven, a Westernized version of Akira Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai (1954). Playing Vin opposite Brynner was Steve McQueen. Both men had enormous egos (Brynner once compared his to an “average-sized aircraft carrier”) and Brynner constantly complained that the more experienced McQueen was scene stealing using little nuances, such as fiddling with his hat. McQueen denied the accusation but Brynner even went as far as hiring someone to watch what McQueen did with his hat! Brynner kept himself busy for the rest of the decade with a variety of films such as Taras Bulba (1962), Invitation To A Gunfighter (1964), Cast A Giant Shadow (1966) and Villa Rides (1968). In 1971 he was divorced for the second time. On September 23, 1971, he married Jacqueline DeCroisset and the couple adopted two Vietnamese orphans. In 1973 he appeared in the Michael Crichton-written-and-directed Westworld about a theme park for rich playboys staffed by robots. Brynner plays a robot cowboy that goes berserk and starts killing the customers. Three years later, he made the sequel, Futureworld. It was to be his penultimate film, although he continued to tour the world in the role of the King that he had made his own. In 1983 he was divorced for the third time and in April married Kathy Lee (née Kathy Yam Choo), a dancer 37 years his junior, on his final tour of The King & I.
CAUSE: Cancer. Brynner smoked three to five packets of Gauloise cigarettes a day from 15 until he was 50. On the day in 1983 that he played the King for the 4,000th time, he discovered that he had inoperable lung cancer. After radiation treatment Brynner announced in January 1984 that he had beaten the disease. The following month he set off on what was billed as “The Final Tour,” which would be succeeded by four months on Broadway. The cancer spread to his spine but Brynner was loath to miss any performances because he had bought the rights to the play in a deal that meant he had to reimburse sold tickets at any show in which he did not appear. He made his 4,633rd and final appearance as the King on June 30, 1985. On September 2 he suffered a stroke and pneumonia set in, followed by meningitis. He died in New York with his wife, son and daughter at his side. Brynner had recorded a TV advertisement warning against the dangers of smoking. It was shown only after his death. His first wife, Virginia, committed suicide on Good Friday (March 28) 1986.
FURTHER READING: Yul: The Man Who Would Be King, Rock Brynner (New York: Simon & Schuster 1989).
Elsa Buchanan
(ELSIE WINIFRED BUCHANAN TINKER)
Born December 22, 1908
Died January 17, 2004
‘The girl with the largest eyes and the smallest waist in Hollywood.’ Born in London, the daughter of a civil servant, 5́ 3˝ Buchanan made her stage début aged three at the Palace Theatre during a performance attended by Queen Mary. Educated at Clapham High School, she danced in wartime charity performances, then studied at RADA before becoming a member of Edward Stirling’s company at the English Playhouse in Paris for 15 months. The then Elsie Tinker impressed the local critics in Hindle Wakes and Hay Fever and became the only Englishwoman to win a place at the training school for the Academie Française. On her return to England, she joined the Plymouth repertory company to appear in The Angel Of The House and The Marsdens, before joining Marie Tempest’s Passing Brompton Road Company at the Criterion in Kingsway. In 1934, Elsa Buchanan, as she had now become, travelled to Hollywood, where a touring company needed someone to play a leading part in the satire I Am So Sorry. It was an eventful time: there was an earthquake, after which she was cut off from her friends for three days with only 10 cents in her pocket and she was involved in a car crash. She attracted attention for her performance as Lord Byron’s humiliated wife in Bitter Harvest. Unable to take up further offers until her contract was fulfilled, it was not long before her blonde good looks brought the photographers running. She modelled ball gowns and linen shorts, and frolicked in the sea at Malibu. A regular in the gossip columns, she failed to translate the publicity into steady work. In 1934, she appeared as Daphne in Riptide and followed that with Charlie Chan In London (1934) in which she played the maid, Alice Perkins. Her accent changes between Cockney and Irish because the producers could not make up their minds which they wanted. Nothing if not flexible, she then appeared in The Mystery Of Edwin Drood (1935) as Mrs Tisher, a schoolmarm, and in Becky Sharpe (1935) as a schoolgirl. She worked on Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936), as Susan the parlour maid with Freddie Bartholomew and Sir C. Aubrey Smith (who recalled appearing on stage with her when she was five), and in Here’s To Romance (1935) as Enid, I Found Stella Parish (1935), Lloyd’s Of London (1936) as a servant, Trouble For Two (1936), The Thirteenth Chair (1937) as Miss Stanby, and Call It A Day (1937) as Vera the maid, as well as many other films for which she often never even earned a credit. After two years she returned home for a holiday, and immediately won a job as a chatty nurse in the Teddington production From A Dark Stairway. But Hollywood was losing its attraction, and she had caught the fancy of a merchant navy officer, Noll Charlton, who had proposed to her several times when his ship visited California. She finally accepted at a ball for King George VI’s coronation. They married in 1938 and had a son. They were together until his death in 1966. During the Second World War Elsa did some advertisements for the Women’s Land Army and then, claiming to be 22 instead of 32, she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force as a clerk. She arrived at Fighter Command’s 11 Group at Uxbridge just as the Battle of Britain began, and became a plotter in the ops room. As the pressure eased, she set about organising a weekly variety concert and writing a skit, Alice in WAAFland, about a WAAF enrolment centre. When the Luftwaffe abandoned its campaign, Elsa was commissioned as section officer and sent to Bomber Command at RAF Finningley. She joined the publicity staff at the Air Ministry, which led to her last film appearance in They Flew Alone, which starred Anna Neagle as the pilot Amy Johnson. Elsa Buchanan was shown with 50 airwomen under her command back in the ops room at Uxbridge. The final part of her wartime career
was spent with Coastal Command before she was invalided out in 1944. When her husband was demobbed, he worked for Iraq Petroleum in Qatar, and then at Tripoli, where his family joined him. Following his retirement in 1962, they moved to the Isle of Man. After his death four years later, Elsa moved to Childswickham, Worcestershire, where she lived in a Georgian farmhouse, owned a Pyrenean mountain dog, and became a keen Scrabble player and a devotee of the Daily Telegrap h quick crossword. Elsa Buchanan did not miss show business, though she once took her son to see Charlie Girl in London, where Anna Neagle told him that, while she had always been a showgirl, his mother had been an actress.
Fade to Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries Page 41
