Michael Rennie

Michael Rennie, born Eric Alexander Rennie on 25 August 1909 in Idle, near Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, was a British actor whose career in film, television, and stage spanned more than three decades. He died on 10 June 1971. The second son of James Rennie, a Scottish wool mill owner, and his English wife Amelia, née Dobby, he grew up in a family whose textile business had operated for over 150 years. He had an elder brother William, a younger brother Gordon, and a sister Edith. He received his education at the Leys School, Cambridge.

Before pursuing acting, Rennie worked at the family mill in Bradford and held several other positions, including a stint as a car salesman and a job sweeping floors in his uncle's steel ropes factory. At the age of 26, in 1935, he decided to pursue a career as an actor, retaining his surname while adopting Michael as his professional first name. He cited Ronald Colman as a primary influence on his ambitions.

Standing six feet four inches tall, Rennie attracted the attention of a casting director at Gaumont British, who brought him on as an extra. Head of production Michael Balcon later noted that Rennie was taken on for his looks and athleticism, though Balcon considered him too inexperienced for substantial screen work and dismissed him after seeing rushes from East Meets West in 1936. Rennie's first screen appearance had been an uncredited bit part in Alfred Hitchcock's Secret Agent that same year, in which he stood in for Robert Young. Following his dismissal from Gaumont, he moved into repertory theatre, working primarily in Yorkshire and eventually becoming a prominent figure with the York Repertory Company, where his roles included Professor Henry Higgins in Pygmalion. During this period he also appeared in small, unbilled roles in a number of British films, among them The Man Who Could Work Miracles, Conquest of the Air, Gangway, The Divorce of Lady X, and Bank Holiday.

As war broke out in Europe in September 1939, Rennie began receiving offers for more substantial film roles, appearing in productions including This Man Is Dangerous, Dangerous Moonlight, and Pimpernel Smith. He auditioned again for Balcon, by then head of Ealing Studios, and was cast in Ships with Wings. His first significant film role came in the suspense drama Tower of Terror in 1941, in which he held one of the romantic leads alongside Movita. He later described the part as his worst. Balcon also cast him in The Big Blockade in 1942, where he was described in contemporary coverage as a rapidly rising newcomer.

Rennie enlisted in the RAF Volunteer Reserve on 27 May 1941. He was officially discharged on 4 August 1942 and commissioned the following day as a pilot officer on probation in the General Duties Branch of the RAFVR, with the number 127347. He was promoted to flying officer on probation on 5 February 1943 and resigned his commission on 1 May 1944. His basic training took place near Torquay in Devon, after which he was sent to the United States for fighter pilot training under the Arnold Plan, a programme in which RAF pilots were trained by United States Army Air Forces instructors.

Following the end of the war in Europe in May 1945, Rennie was cast alongside Margaret Lockwood in the Gainsborough Studios musical I'll Be Your Sweetheart, directed by Val Guest. Though billed below Lockwood and Vic Oliver, his character served as the film's actual protagonist. The American trade publication Variety praised his performance and described him as likely Hollywood material and the strongest prospect for a new male star to emerge from a British studio in many years. He followed that film with another Gainsborough production alongside Lockwood, the costume adventure The Wicked Lady, which became the year's biggest box-office hit in Britain and ranked among the ten highest-grossing British films of all time. That same year he appeared in a single prominent scene as a commander of Roman centurions in Gabriel Pascal's production of Caesar and Cleopatra, starring Vivien Leigh and Claude Rains. Gainsborough subsequently paired him with Phyllis Calvert in the 1947 melodrama The Root of All Evil.

Rennie went on to appear in more than 50 films over the course of his career and became particularly well known to international audiences for his portrayal of the extraterrestrial visitor Klaatu in the science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still in 1951. In addition to his film work, he appeared in several American television series. Throughout his career he worked to develop what he described as a mid-Atlantic accent, one that could be readily understood by both American and British audiences, an affectation that led many to assume he was Canadian.

Rennie also maintained a presence on the stage. In 1961 he appeared on Broadway in Mary, Mary, bringing his extensive experience in both British repertory theatre and Hollywood film to the New York stage.