Henry Daniell

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Charles Henry Daniell (5 March 1894 – 31 October 1963) was an English actor who had a long and prestigious career on stage as well as in films. He is perhaps best known for his villainous roles in films like The Great Dictator, The Philadelphia Story and The Sea Hawk. Daniell was given few opportunities to play a 'good guy', including a supporting part as Franz Liszt in the biographical film Song of Love (1947). His last name is sometimes spelled "Daniel". Daniell's film debut came in 1929 in Jealousy. He appeared as Professor Moriarty in the Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes film The Woman in Green (1945). He appeared in other films such as Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940) (playing Garbitsch, to sound like "garbage", a parody of Joseph Goebbels), and The Body Snatcher (1945, with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi) – as well as two other films in the Sherlock Holmes/Basil Rathbone series: The Voice of Terror (1942) and Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943) with fellow Moriarty George Zucco. Daniell played the sleazy Baron de Varville opposite Greta Garbo in Camille (1936). Another early triumph was his portrayal of Cecil in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939). He also played the treacherous Lord Wolfingham (no relation to Francis Walsingham) in The Sea Hawk (1940), fighting Errol Flynn in what is often considered one of the most spectacular sword fighting duels ever filmed. When Michael Curtiz cast him in this film, Henry Daniell initially refused because he couldn't fence. Curtiz accomplished the climactic duel through the use of shadows and over-shoulder shots, with a double fencing Flynn with ingenious inter-cutting of their faces. Towards the end of the Second World War, he appeared in one of his most memorable film roles, as the cruel Mr. Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre (1944), opposite Joan Fontaine who played Eyre. That same year he appeared in The Suspect as Charles Laughton's blackmailing next-door neighbour. In the 1950s and 1960s, he did much television, and also appeared as the malevolent Dr. Emil Zurich in Edward L. Cahn's The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959), and in an episode of Maverick, "Pappy" opposite James Garner the same year. An absolute professional, he was always on the set when needed, and impatient when delays in filming took place. Much in demand for his dry, sardonic delivery, Daniell moved easily from big-budget films, such as (uncredited) Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), to television without difficulty. In 1957, Daniell appeared as King Charles II of England in the NBC anthology series The Joseph Cotten Show in the episode "The Trial of Colonel Blood", with Michael Wilding in the title role. In the same year he played the instructing solicitor to Charles Laughton's leading counsel barrister in Witness for the Prosecution (1957). The actor claimed one of his favourite roles was as Tony Curtis' supervisor in the acclaimed Blake Edwards film Mister Cory (1957) at a time when the actor's career was clearly slowing down, but Daniell retained some of the best and most memorable lines in the movie, "A gentleman never grabs. Manners, Mister Cory. I find them a prerequisite in any circumstance."

Known For

Garbitsch

The Great Dictator

Sidney Kidd

The Philadelphia Story

Dr. Zucco

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

Blades

Siren of Atlantis

Dr. Wolfe 'Toddy' MacFarlane

The Body Snatcher

Gireaux

The Comancheros

Henry Brocklehurst

Jane Eyre

Doctor

The Sun Also Rises

Sir Anthony Lloyd

Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror

Lord Wolfingham

The Sea Hawk

Public Prosecutor

A Woman's Face

Professor James Moriarty

The Woman in Green

Bill Ogden

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

Jacques Desaix

Wake of the Red Witch

Theodorus van Gogh

Lust for Life

Watson King

Castle in the Desert

Mayhew

Witness for the Prosecution

Pierre Cauchon - Bishop of Beauvais

The Story of Mankind

Judge

Les Girls

Broussais

All This, and Heaven Too

William Easter

Sherlock Holmes in Washington

La Motte

Marie Antoinette

Lerocle

Madame X

General Savary

The Firefly

Baron de Varville

Camille

Morgana

From the Earth to the Moon

Seton Cram

Holiday

Norman Warriner

The Awful Truth

Capt. Duval

Buccaneer's Girl

Sir Robert Cecil

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex

Garbitsch (archive footage) (uncredited)

Hitler: The Comedy Years

Stranger

The Notorious Landlady

Stipe

Madison Avenue

Dr. Emil Zurich

The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake

Shelley Mason

The Feminine Touch

Colonel Ingram

The Exile

Professor Marvin Griswald

Under Cover of Night

Maj. Edward Chevenish

The Secret Of St. Ives

Franz Liszt

Song of Love

Dr. Jonas

The Chapman Report

Mr. Earnshaw

Mister Cory

Baron Von Stetten

Hotel Berlin

John Wales

The Thirteenth Chair

Sir Ronald Dawson

We Are Not Alone

Gondi

Diane

Hugh Lewis

The Unguarded Hour

Mr. Manningham

Angel Street

Bobo

Four Jacks and a Jill

Mr. Simmons

The Suspect

Phili Von Ramme

Watch on the Rhine

Mekere

The Egyptian

Julian Davis

Dressed to Kill

Count von Rimpau (as Henry Daniel)

The Last of the Lone Wolf

King Maximillian

The Path of Glory

Edward Moulton-Barrett

The Barretts of Wimpole Street

Frederick Seamon

The Great Impersonation

King William III

Captain Kidd

Minister von Ribbentrop

Mission to Moscow

Capt. Edgar Stafford

Nightmare

Emile Fleuron

Reunion in France

The Regent - William of Pembroke

The Bandit of Sherwood Forest

Sheik Ageiba

Five Weeks in a Balloon

Court-martial Judge (uncredited)

Mutiny on the Bounty

Ambassador (uncredited)

My Fair Lady

Ramadi

The Prodigal

Clement

Jealousy

Hubbel

Confession