James Mason

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James Neville Mason, who appeared in 1909 to 1984, was an English actor.

Mason rose to fame in British cinema before becoming one of Hollywood's most popular actors.

In 1944 and 1945, he was the best box office attraction in the United Kingdom, with notable films including The Seventh Veil (1945) and The Wicked Lady (1945).

He appeared in Odd Man Out (1947), the first winner of the BAFTA Award for Best British Film. He appeared in many of hit British and American films from the 1950s to the early 1980s, including The Desert Fox, A Star Is Born, Lolita, North by Northwest, A Touch of Larceny, The Boys From Brazil, A Mandingo, Murder, The Verdict, Mandingo, and Salem's Lot. Mason was nominated for three Academy Awards, three Golden Globes (winning the Golden Globe in 1955), and two BAFTA Awards throughout his career.

Following his death in 1984, his ashes were laid to rest near the tomb of his close friend, fellow English actor Sir Charlie Chaplin.

Early life, family, and education

Mason was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, was the youngest of three sons of John Mason and Mabel Hattersley's daughter, J. Shaw Gaunt. John Mason, a wealthy wool merchant who looked like his own son, departed a good deal on business, mainly in France and Belgium; Mabel, who was "uncommonly educated" and had spent time in London, was "attentive and loving" in raising her children; On Croft House Lane in Marsh, which was replaced in the mid-1970s by flats called Arncliffe Court. Masons lived in a house on its own grounds. James Mason Court is now a small residential building across the street from where the house once stood.

Mason was educated at Marlborough College and gained his first in Architecture at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he became involved in stock theatre companies in his spare time. He had no formal education in acting and took on the challenge for fun.

Personal life

Mason was devoted to animals, especially cats. The book The Cats in Our Lives was co-authored by Pamela Mason and his wife, who was born in 1949. The book was written by James Mason, who also illustrated it. He retold a parody and sometimes touching tales of the cats (as well as a few dogs) he knew and loved in The Cats in Our Lives.

Mason bought a house that had previously owned by Buster Keaton in 1952. He discovered reels of nitrate film that had been lost, stored in the house, and made by the comedian, such as The Boat (1921). Mason arranged for the transfer of the deteriorating film to safety stock, saving them from oblivion.

Mason, a youth, was a huge fan of his hometown Rugby League team, Huddersfield. In later years, he began to track Huddersfield Town's fortunes.

Mason was married twice:

Until I Forget, Mason's autobiography, Before I Forget, was released in 1981.

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Career

1931--1933: Early stage work After graduating from Cambridge, Mason made his stage debut in Aldershot in 1931.

He began training with Tyrone Guthrie in London and was directed by them. Though he appeared in the film The Cherry Orchard, Henry VIII. Measure for Measure, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, and Macbeth, Henry VIII. Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester were among those who were included in several of these shows. He appeared at the Gate Theatre in Dublin, Dublin, especially in Pride and Prejudice with Betty Chancellor George O'Connor in the mid-1930s.

In 1933, Alexander Korda gave Mason a small part in Don Juan's Private Life, but he was fired three days after starting to fire three days earlier.

1935–1939: Early films

He appeared in numerous British quota quickies, beginning with his first film, Late Extra (1935), in which he played the lead. Albert Parker was the director. Mason appeared in Twice Branded (1936), Troubled Waters (1936), also directed by Parker; Prison Breaker (1936); and Blind Man's Bluff (1936), an "A" film.

Mason was instrumental in the Korda's Fire Over England (1937), with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. He appeared in another "A" (The High Command (1937), directed by Thorold Dickinson, before returning to quickies in Catch As Catch Can (1937), directed by Roy Kellino. In The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1937), Korda cast him as the villain. (1937)

1938-1939: Television Mason began to appear in some televised productions of plays from 1938-1939: Cyrano de Bergerac (1938), The Moon in the Yellow River (1938), L'Avare (1939), and The Circle (1939).

Based on a tale by Mason and Pamela Kellino, who also appeared with Mason and who would marry, he returned to I Met a Murderer (1939) based on a tale by Mason and Pamela Kellino. Roy Kellino, her husband, was in charge of the film.

Second World War

During World War II, he registered as a conscient protester (causing his family to divorce him for several years), but his tribunal refused to exempt him from the obligation to do non-combatant military service, which he also refused to do. He appealed the tribunal's decision on this issue. Since being placed in a general exemption for film work, his appeal became irrelevant. A. J. Cronin brought him back to the stage in 1941-42 to appear in Jupiter Laughs. In a series of films, he established himself as a leading man in Britain, including Robert Newton and Deborah Kerr (1941); Alibi (1942) with Margaret Lockwood; and The Bells Go Down (1943) with Tommy Trinder.

In the Gainsborough series of melodramas of the 1940s, Mason became well-known for his brooding anti-heroes and occasional outright villains, beginning with The Man in Grey (1943). Lockwood, Stewart Granger, and Phyllis Calvert were all cast members in the film, bringing them and co-stars to top-level actors.

Mason appeared in two wartime dramas, They Met in the Dark (1943) and Candlelight (1944), before returning to Gainsborough, where it was another big hit.

Mason appeared in Hotel Reserve (1944), a drama, before he wrote a ghost story about Gainsborough with Lockwood, A Place of One's Own (1945). They Were Sisters (1945) was far more popular than a melodrama.

In a psychodrama about musicians, Sydney Box cast Mason as the tyrannical guardian of pianist Ann Todd (1945). Mason's demand for Mason was at a high point in both Britain and the United States, and it was a big success in the United Kingdom and the United States, and demand for him was at a fever peak. Exhibitors named him Britain's most popular celebrity in each year between 1944 and 1947. They also believed he was the most well-known international celebrity in 1946, but he fell to second place the next year. In 1948, he became Canada's most well-known male actor.

Mason was only marginally involved in The Wicked Lady (1945), a big success in Lockwood. Mason's best reviews to date came from his appearance in Carol Reed's Odd Man Out (1947).

Mason was able to turn producer on a Box film written by his wife and starring Mason, The Upturned Glass (1947). It was not particularly fruitful. Neither was Bathsheba, a play performed by he and his wife on Broadway.

Mason went to Hollywood, where his first film, directed by Max Ophüls, was released (1949). In MGM's Madame Bovary (1949), he played Gustave Flaubert.

Mason performed another with Ophüls (1949), then did the East Side, West Side (1949) with Barbara Stanwyck at MGM and One Way Street (1950) at Universal. With Ava Gardner, he made Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951). None of these films were particularly popular.

Films at 20th Century Fox

After being cast as General Rommel in The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951), directed by Henry Hathaway, Mason's Hollywood career was revived. He agreed to work with 20th Century Fox for seven years at one film a year.

Mason produced a film at Republic Pictures written by his wife and starring Roy Kellino, Lady Possessed (1951). In 5 Fingers (1951), directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, he appeared as a spy at Fox.

In The Prisoner of Zenda (1952) opposite Granger, MGM recruited him to play Rupert of Hentzau. In 1951, he was in the lower budgeted Face to Face (1952), then he moved to Paraguay to play a villainous sea captain opposite Alan Ladd in Botany Bay (1953).

Mason was one of many actors in MGM's The Story of Three Loves (1953). He reprised his appearance in The Desert Rats (1953), then reunited with Mankiewicz at MGM, portraying Brutus in Julius Caesar (1953), opposite Marlon Brando. The film was a hit.

Mason appeared in The Man Between (1953), but Fox used him as a villain in Prince Valiant (1954). Mason produced another film starring his wife and directed by Roy Kellino, Charade (1954).

After Cary Grant's death, Warner Bros. recruited him to play Judy Garland's leading man in A Star Is Born (1954). Mason was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. In 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), he went to Disney to play Captain Nemo, a huge hit that also starred Kirk Douglas. Mason appeared on CBS television in 1954 and 1955 as the host of several episodes of Lux Video Theatre.

In Forever, Darling (1956), Mason appeared with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, and Later appeared in and produced a film at Fox, Bigger Than Life (1956), directed by Nicholas Ray. The effects of cortisone drove Mason to crammer. He made another for Fox, the hugely popular melodrama, Island in the Sun (1957).

Mason started appearing on television in shows such as Panic!, GE Theatre, Schlitz Playhouse, Goodyear Theatre, and Playhouse 90 (several episodes including John Brown's Raid).

Cry Terrorist Andrew L. Stone's two thrillers starred him. (1958) and The Decks Ran Red (1958) narrated Cary Grant, who was captured by Alfred Hitchcock in North by Northwest (1959).

As the devoted Scottish scientist and explorer in Journey to the Earth (1959), he had a huge success at Fox, taking over a role that wasn't intended for Clifton Webb. In The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), he appeared in A Touch of Larceny (1960) and was Sir Edward Carson in The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960).

With June Allyson, Golden Showcase, Theatre '62, and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, he continued to appear on television shows like The DuPont Showcase, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

He appeared in Stanley Kubrick's version of Lolita (1961), and did The Marriage-Go-Round (1961).

He appeared in Tiara Tahiti (1962), then Hero's Island (1962), which he also produced. He was in Torre Bay (1963).

In 1963, Mason landed in Switzerland and began a transatlantic career. He began to drift into support roles, or second leads in The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964); Anne Bancroft, a Chinese noble who betrays Peter O'Toole's character in Lord Jim (1965); A fourth Academy Award nominee for Best Actor in a Supporting Role; Stephen O'Toole's role in Lord Jim (1965);

Mason narrated the documentary The London Nobody Knows in 1967. Mason narrated two British documentary series directed by Kevin Brownlow (1980), dedicated to out-take material from Sir Charlie Chaplin's films. Mason had been a longtime neighbor and friend of the comedian. Mason mentored up-and-coming actor Sam Neill in the late 1970s.

He appeared in several episodes of ITV Play of the Week (1967) and Sidney Lumet (playing a character based on George Smiley but the whole thing was renamed); and Stranger in the House (1968).

He appeared in Duffy (1968) and Mayerling (1968), but he was top billed in The Sea Gull (1968) for Sidney Lumet (1969) for Michael Powell, a film that Mason also produced. Helen Mirren's first big film role was featured in the film, and Powell's last major film was probably Powell's last major film. He appeared in Spring and Port Wine (1970).

He was a support in Kill!

Kill!

Kill!

Kill!

Meme Proser (1977), The Flower in His Mouth (1976), The Yin and the Yang of the Havoc (1978), Later Sir Richard Straker (1979), The Children of Nazareth (1978), He died in Salem's Lot (1979), Wilson's Intention (1979).

Mason was in North Sea Hijack (1980), assisting Roger Moore, Evil Under the Sun (1982), Ivanhoe (1982), and A Dangerous Summer (1982).

In The Verdict (1982), opposite Paul Newman, one of his last appearances, earned him his third and final Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

He appeared in Yellowbeard (1983), Alexandre (1983), and George Washington (1984).

After being seriously wounded in a shooting on the first day, he stepped into the lead role in Dr. Fischer of Geneva (1985), a Graham Greene's eponymous bookla for the BBC. This was supposed to be Mason's last screen appearance in a film. He appeared on television in A.D. (1985) and The Assisi Underground (1985).

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