George Arliss

George Arliss, born Augustus George Andrews on 10 April 1868 in London, England, was an actor, author, playwright, and filmmaker whose career spanned the legitimate theatre, silent film, and sound film. He died on 5 February 1946 in Maida Hill, London, of a bronchial ailment at the age of 77. His Broadway career extended from 1902 to 1928, during which he appeared in productions including Disraeli, Hamilton, The Man Who Stole the Castle, and There and Back.

Arliss left his father William Joseph Arliss Andrews's publishing office at age 18 to pursue a stage career, beginning in the British provinces in 1887. By 1900 he had advanced to supporting roles in London's West End. In 1901 he traveled to America as part of Mrs. Patrick Campbell's touring troupe, intending only a temporary stay, but remained in the United States for approximately twenty years. He made his Broadway debut in Magda in 1902 and rose to stardom in 1908 in The Devil. Producer George Tyler commissioned playwright Louis Napoleon Parker in 1911 to write a vehicle specifically for Arliss, resulting in Disraeli, in which the actor toured for five years and with which he became permanently identified. In 1919, Arliss published a piece in Vanity Fair outlining a proposal for a nonprofit organization called the Theatre Annex, intended to allow new plays to be tested under special conditions. That same year he received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Columbia University, an achievement his gravestone honors above all others.

His film career began with The Devil in 1921, followed by a silent version of Disraeli and four additional silent pictures. Of those early films, only The Devil, Disraeli, $20 a Week, and The Green Goddess — based on the stage play in which he had starred — are known to have survived. In 1929, at the age of 61, Arliss remade both The Green Goddess and Disraeli as sound films, winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for Disraeli. He was the first British actor to receive that honor and, at the time of his win, the earliest-born actor of any category to have done so.

Arliss subsequently signed a contract with Warner Bros. to make ten sound films, an arrangement that granted him an unusual degree of creative control, including the ability to cast actors and rewrite scripts — privileges not even formalized in the contract itself. One of those productions, The Man Who Played God in 1932, marked Bette Davis's first leading role; Davis credited Arliss for personally insisting on her casting and for giving her the opportunity to demonstrate her abilities. The two appeared together again in The Working Man in 1933. Arliss built a consistent production unit at Warners, bringing in his stage manager Maude T. Howell as an assistant producer — one of the few female film executives in Hollywood at the time — and working regularly with director John Adolfi and actors Ivan Simpson and Charles Evans. He was also credited with recognizing early talent in James Cagney, Randolph Scott, and Dick Powell. His wife Florence, née Florence Kate Montgomery Smith, whom he married on 14 September 1899, appeared alongside him in many stage and film productions, typically playing his character's spouse.

After Darryl F. Zanuck left Warner Bros. in April 1933 to establish 20th Century Pictures, Arliss followed him to the new studio. Warners lodged a complaint with the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences, alleging that Zanuck had taken their star. Arliss's work across both studios produced a well-regarded series of historical biopics, among them Alexander Hamilton in 1931, Voltaire in 1933, The House of Rothschild and The Iron Duke in 1934, and Cardinal Richelieu in 1935. He also appeared in a cycle of domestic comedies including The Millionaire in 1931, A Successful Calamity in 1932, The Working Man in 1933, and The Last Gentleman in 1934. In 1934, British filmgoers voted Arliss their favorite male star.

He completed the British-made Doctor Syn in 1937, approaching the age of 70 at the time. In January 1938, producer-director Cecil B. DeMille arranged for Arliss and his wife to re-enact their Disraeli roles on Lux Radio Theatre. The couple returned to Lux in March 1938 for a radio adaptation of The Man Who Played God and again in January 1939 for Cardinal Richelieu, which appears to have been their final dramatic performance of any kind. The Arlisses returned to London in April 1939, and the outbreak of the Second World War prevented them from traveling back to America. In September 1941, the British Government charged Arliss with failing to report bank accounts he held in the United States and Canada; he claimed ignorance of the new requirement but was fined and publicly humiliated. He lived through the Luftwaffe's Blitz on London and declined an approach from Zanuck in 1942 to return to Hollywood to star in The Pied Piper. In retirement he settled at Pangbourne in Berkshire.

Beyond his performing career, Arliss was a prominent anti-vivisectionist who founded the National Anti-Vivisection Society of Chicago, and he served as president of the Episcopal Actors' Guild of America from 1921 to 1938. He was a strict vegetarian and walked four miles daily. He published his autobiography, Up the Years from Bloomsbury, in 1927, and also contributed to Broadway as a book writer. Arliss holds a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6648-1/2 Hollywood Boulevard and was a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame.