Eric Maturin

Eric Bagot Maturin (30 May 1883 – 17 October 1957) was a British actor born in Nainital, India, the eldest of three sons of Edith Emily Maturin (née Money; 1863–1945) and Colonel Frederick Henry Maturin (1848–1936) of the East Surrey Regiment. His parents had married on 1 August 1882 at St Andrew's church in Darjeeling and later divorced in 1911. Prior to his acting career, Maturin was recorded in 1901 as working as an insurance office clerk. His stage career began in 1905 and extended across Broadway and the London stage for several decades.

Maturin's Broadway appearances spanned from 1905 to 1914. His first Broadway credit came with Love and the Man at the Knickerbocker Theatre in 1905, followed by Myself – Bettina at Daly's Theatre in 1908. He played Leonard Ferris in Mid-Channel at the Empire Theatre in 1910, and appeared in The Elder Son at the Playhouse Theatre in 1914. Beyond Broadway, his London stage work included the role of Will Ganton in The Great John Ganton at the Aldwych Theatre in 1909, and a private performance of Oscar Wilde's Salome, presented by the New Players at the Royal Court Theatre in 1911. He later appeared as Randall the Rotter in Heartbreak House in 1921, in Loyalties at St Martin's Theatre in 1922, and in The Green Hat starring Tallulah Bankhead at the Adelphi Theatre in 1925. His subsequent stage credits included Espionage at the Apollo Theatre in 1935, I Killed the Count at the Whitehall Theatre in 1937, and The Day After Tomorrow in 1946, which starred Phyllis Dare. In 1928, Maturin took on the title role in Macbeth for the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, in a production directed by Barry Jackson that was set during World War I, with Maturin performing the role dressed as a British general.

During World War I, Maturin served in the Royal Field Artillery from 1914 to 1918, attaining the rank of Lieutenant. He was deployed in Mesopotamia for eleven months before being invalided back to the United Kingdom in August 1917, suffering from neurasthenia. A medical board in Norwich assessed him as fit for anti-aircraft defence duty in November 1917, but his condition recurred and he was admitted to a hospital in Birmingham in February 1918. By June 1918 he was deemed unfit for further service and relinquished his commission, retaining the honorary rank of lieutenant and the right to wear his uniform on appropriate occasions. He rejoined the Army in 1940 following the outbreak of World War II.

Maturin made his first film appearance in 1919, playing Captain Arthur Mason in Wisp o' the Woods, during the era of silent film. His subsequent screen roles included Adrian Redwood in The Naked Man (1923), Major Maurewarde in His House in Order (1928), Frank Sutton in The Squeaker (1930), Hector Braydon in Beyond the Cities (1930), Fenton in The Girl in the Night (1931), Count Fournal in The Face at the Window (1932), and James Kelver in The Flaw (1933). He appeared as The Director in Love, Life and Laughter (1934), Tim Gierson in Youthful Folly (1934), Smith in Sanders of the River (1935), Robert Downing in City of Beautiful Nonsense (1935), Nevern in The Price of a Song (1935), and Captain Mellock in Bees on the Boat-Deck (1939). His later film credits included a Passport Officer in Contraband (1940), an Older Man in The Foreman Went to France (1942), Colonel Goodhead in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), and Geoffrey's Father in A Canterbury Tale (1944). On television, he played Group Captain Walter Cartwright-Godwall in the BBC's Sunday Night Theatre in 1950, Wrexham in Last Holiday (1950), and Colonel Sebastian Moran in the BBC television series Sherlock Holmes in 1951.

A believer in Christian Science, Maturin died at the Edward VII Hospital in London on 17 October 1957 at the age of 74.