Oscar Profile #23: Charles Laughton

Born in Yorkshire, England in 1899, young Charles Laughton followed his father into the hotel management business, but in his late twenties enrolled as a student in London’s prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) where he excelled. Soon appearing on the London stage, he was the first actor to play Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot in 1928’s Alibi, an adaptation ofThe Murder of Roger Ackroyd. He brought the play, Payment Deferred in which he played is first vile character, to Broadway in 1931 and had his greatest stage success in America in Galileo.

His film career began in England with a bit part in 1929’s Picadilly. His Hollywood career began with a featured role in 1932’s The Old Dark House and in earnest later that year with Payment Deferred; If I Had a Million and The Sign of the Cross. His celebrated portrayal of the mad emperor Nero in the latter was the first of his many historical roles on screen.

Alexander Korda reportedly saw a painting of Henry VIII in Britain’s National Gallery that reminded him of Laughton, his inspiration for writing, producing and directing The Private Life of Henry VIII for which Laughton received his first Oscar nomination and his only Oscar. The mad scientist in Island of Lost Souls, also released that year, was another triumph.

In 1934, he all but stole The Barretts of Wimpole Street from romantic leads Norma Shearer and Fredric March as Shearer’s domineering father. Cast as Mr. Macawber in David Copperfield, he left the project after just a few days ostensibly because he didn’t get the character. More likely, though, is that he heard the rumors that he looked like he was going to molest Freddie Bartholomew in the title role, and was afraid of the repercussions that would have on his career.

1935 brought him three of his greatest roles, as the unyielding Inspector Javert in Les Miserables; the titled butler won in a poker game and brought to America in Ruggles of Red Gap and the tyrannical Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty, for which he won his second Oscar nomination. He followed that great year with another great role as the troubled artist in 1936’s Rembrandt.

Abandoned after just a few scenes were shot, I, Claudius looked like it would be another one of Laughton’s great films, but it wasn’t to be. The film was suspended after co-star Merle Oberon was injured in a car crash. He did have one more great role, though, with which to round out the 1930s, that of Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Through most of the 1940s, he was badly miscast in a series of ham-fisted roles that did not measure up to his talents. Several exceptions, however, included that of the elderly millionaire whose life is brightened by Deanna Durbin in 1941’s It Started With Eve; the cowardly schoolmaster in 1943’s This Land Is Mine; the titled ectoplasm in an updated wartime version of 1944’s The Canterville Ghost; the henpecked husband driven to murder in 1945’s The Suspect and the megalomaniac press tycoon in 1948’s The Big Clock.

His best early 1950s role was as the miserly father in 1954’s Hobson’s Choice. He also directed his only film, The Night of the Hunter, a flop at the time, but now considered one of the great American films of its era.

He returned to Agatha Christie in 1957’s Witness for the Prosecution, winning his third and final Oscar nomination for his delightful portrayal of a wily barrister. He gave two other superb late career performances as a Roman Senator in 1960’s Spartacus and as contemporary version of the same as a U.S. Senator from the South in 1962’s Advise and Consent. He filmed the latter knowing he was dying of bone cancer.

Cast as the bartender in Irma La Douce, he was too ill to play the part and died in 1962 at 63.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE PRIVATE LIFE OF HENRY VIII (1933), directed by Alexander Korda

Laughton fit the part of Henry VIII like a glove. Not only did he look like he stepped out of a painting of the king, he played the part as we might well have imagined him – ugly, slovenly and a bit dense. It wasn’t until Robert Shaw’s portrayal of Henry as young and lusty in A Man for All Seasons that we saw him played by someone we could understand all those women being attracted to.

An excellent supporting cast including Robert Donat, Binnie Barnes, Elsa Lanchester, Wendy Barrie and Merle Oberon supports the emerging great actor, but it’s Laughton’s film from start to finish.

THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET (1934), directed by Sidney Franklin

Put into production just as the infamous Hollywood Production Code was going into effect, this heavily sanitized version of the play about the love affair between Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning starred Norma Shearer and Fredric March as the lovers and Laughton as Barrett’s tyrannical father, Edward Moulton-Barrett. All hints of Moulton-Barrett’s incestuous feelings toward daughters Shearer and Maureen O’Sullivan had to be suppressed. This led to Laughton’s famous proclamation that “they couldn’t censor the gleam in my eye” and indeed they couldn’t.

MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935), directed by Frank Lloyd

RUGGLES OF RED GAP (1935), directed by Leo McCarey

I can’t think of any other actor in any other year who gave the year’s two best performances in two completely different films. Laughton’s portrayal of bellowing Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty, the year’s Oscar winner for Best Picture, is the one he’s best known for. It’s the single most imitated performance of comics, both professional and amateur, for more than 75 years now.

His other great performance was his portrayal of the imported butler who shames a room full of hicks with his recitation of the Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in Ruggles of Red Gap, the best scene in a comic masterpiece filled with great scenes.

WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION (1957), directed by William Wyler

After a long dry spell and the failure of The Night of the Hunter, the only film he directed, Laughton was overdue for a great big hit and he found one in this adaptation of Agatha Christie’s celebrated stage production. Third billed behind Tyrone Power and Marlene Dietrich, his portrayal of the wily London barrister is the heart and soul of the film. Laughton’s wife, Elsa Lanchester, was given a role written for her that was not in the stage version and the two were nominated for Oscars for their delightful playing against each other.

Una O’Connor, who played Laughton’s maid in The Barretts of Wimpole Street and his mother in This Land Is Mine was the only member of the Broadway cast to repeat her stage role, that of the hard-of-hearing maid of the murder victim.