Henry Daniell

Charles Henry Pywell Daniell was born on 5 March 1894 in Barnes, Surrey, England, and died on 31 October 1963. Educated at St Paul's School in London and Gresham's School in Holt, Norfolk, he built a career spanning stage and screen in both Britain and the United States, with Broadway appearances stretching from 1921 to 1962.

Daniell made his first stage appearance in the provinces in 1913, followed by a walk-on role at London's Globe Theatre on 10 March 1914 in a revival of Edward Knoblock's Kismet. He subsequently appeared in Monna Vanna and The Sphinx before enlisting in 1914 with the 2nd Battalion of the Norfolk Regiment during World War I. Severely wounded in combat, he was invalided out the following year. He resumed his stage career in October 1915 at the New Theatre, playing Police Officer Clancy in Stop Thief!, and from May 1916 performed at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket.

His Broadway debut came in April 1921 at the Empire Theatre in New York City, where he played Prince Charles of Vaucluse in Clair de Lune. He returned to Broadway in The Woman on the Jury in 1923 and The Second Mrs. Tanqueray in 1924, then toured for several years before reappearing in London at the Garrick Theatre in August 1925 as Jack Race in Cobra. In January 1929 he appeared at the Morosco Theatre as Lord Ivor Cream in Serena Blandish, and later that year began his film career with The Awful Truth, opposite Ina Claire, and Jealousy, which featured Jeanne Eagels in her final role. He also appeared in The Last of the Lone Wolf in 1930, and returned to Broadway for Heat Wave in 1931 and For Services Rendered in 1933. Kind Lady followed on Broadway in 1935, and he appeared in the British film The Path of Glory in 1934.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cast Daniell in a succession of films beginning in 1936, including The Unguarded Hour, Camille with Greta Garbo in which he played the Baron de Varville, Under Cover of Night, The Thirteenth Chair, The Firefly, and Madame X. Columbia borrowed him for Holiday in 1938, and he returned to MGM for Marie Antoinette that same year, playing Nicholas de la Motte. At Warner Bros. he appeared in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex in 1939 as Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Bette Davis and Errol Flynn. He followed that with We Are Not Alone, All This, and Heaven Too, and The Sea Hawk, all released in 1939 or 1940. In The Sea Hawk, again directed by Curtiz, Daniell played the treacherous Lord Wolfingham. Having initially refused the role because he could not fence, he completed the climactic duel through Curtiz's use of shadows, over-shoulder shots, a double fencing Flynn, and intercutting of the actors' faces. Charlie Chaplin cast him in The Great Dictator in 1940 as Garbitsch, a parody of Joseph Goebbels, and he subsequently appeared in The Philadelphia Story and A Woman's Face, both also from 1940.

On Broadway, Daniell appeared in Murder Without Crime in 1943 and Lovers and Friends in 1943–44 alongside Katharine Cornell. He also returned to the stage for a revival of Hedda Gabler in 1942 and revivals of The Winter's Tale and Lady Windermere's Fan in 1946 and 1946–47 respectively. He starred in The First Mrs. Fraser in a 1947 Broadway revival. During this period his film work continued with appearances in the Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes films Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror in 1943 and Sherlock Holmes in Washington in 1943, and a third Holmes entry, The Woman in Green in 1945, in which he played Professor Moriarty. He appeared in Mission to Moscow in 1943 as Minister von Ribbentrop, and took a lead role in The Body Snatcher in 1945 alongside Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. He played King William III in Captain Kidd in 1945 and appeared as composer Franz Liszt in Song of Love in 1947, starring Katharine Hepburn, a departure from the villainous roles for which he was most frequently cast.

Daniell appeared on Broadway in That Lady in 1950 and continued stage work in The Cocktail Party in 1951, Remains to Be Seen in 1952, and My Three Angels in 1953–54. His film credits during the 1950s included The Egyptian in 1954, directed by Curtiz, The Prodigal in 1955, Diane in 1956, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit in 1956, Lust for Life in 1956, The Sun Also Rises in 1957, Les Girls in 1957, The Story of Mankind in 1957 in which he played Pierre Cauchon, Witness for the Prosecution in 1957 alongside Charles Laughton, Mister Cory in 1957 directed by Blake Edwards with Tony Curtis, From the Earth to the Moon in 1958, and The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake in 1959. He also appeared on numerous television programs during this period, including Studio One in Hollywood, Armstrong Circle Theatre, Lights Out, Playhouse 90, Maverick, Wagon Train, Peter Gunn, and multiple episodes of Boris Karloff's series Thriller, among others. His final Broadway appearance was in Lord Pengo in 1962–63, with Charles Boyer. His last television credits included episodes of Combat! and 77 Sunset Strip. His name is sometimes spelled Daniel in various credits.