Cedric Hardwicke

Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke (19 February 1893 – 6 August 1964) was an English stage and film actor whose career spanned over 50 years. His theatre work included notable performances in productions of the plays of Shakespeare and Shaw, and his film work included leading roles in several adapted literary classics.

Early life Hardwicke was born in Lye, Worcestershire (now West Midlands), to Edwin Webster Hardwicke and his wife, Jessie (née Masterson). He initially attended Stourbridge Grammar School moving to Bridgnorth Grammar School in Shropshire in September 1907 until July 1911. He intended to train as a doctor but failed to pass the necessary examinations. He turned to the theatre and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).

Military service Hardwicke enlisted at the outbreak of the First World War. He served with the London Scottish from 1914 to 1921 as an officer in the Judge Advocate's branch of the British Army in France.

Career Stage Hardwicke in the 1937 Broadway production of The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse

Hardwicke made his first appearance on stage at the Lyceum Theatre, London in 1912 during the run of Frederick Melville's melodrama The Monk and the Woman, when he took over the part of Brother John. (this occurred in the 1934 New Year's Honours; Laurence Olivier subsequently took the record in 1947 when he was knighted at the age of 40). Other stage successes included The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse, Antigone and A Majority of One, winning a Tony Award nomination for his performance as a Japanese diplomat. In the late 1930s, he moved to the U.S., initially for film work. In the early 1940s, he continued his stage career on tours and in New York.

In 1948, he joined the Old Vic Company at the New Theatre to play Sir Toby Belch, Doctor Faustus, and Gaev in The Cherry Orchard, but according to critic and biographer W.A. Darlington, "it was about this time that he confessed to a friend that he was finding the competition in London too hot for him", and he moved permanently to the U.S.

Film and television work Hardwicke's first appearance in a British film was in 1931, and from the late 1930s, he was in great demand in Hollywood. He played David Livingstone opposite Spencer Tracy's Henry Morton Stanley in Stanley and Livingstone in 1939, and also played the evil Frollo in the remake of The Hunchback of Notre Dame starring Charles Laughton the same year. In 1940, he played Mr. Jones in a screen version of Joseph Conrad's novel Victory. He starred as the unfortunate Ludwig von Frankenstein in The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) alongside Lon Chaney Jr. as Frankenstein's monster and Bela Lugosi as Ygor.

Also in 1956, Hardwicke appeared in the first episode of the second season of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, titled "Wet Saturday", in which he portrayed Mr. Princey, an aristocratic gentleman who tries to cover up a murder to avoid public scandal. On 6 March 1958, he guest-starred on the TV series The Ford Show starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.

In 1961, he co-starred with Gertrude Berg in the Four Star Television situation comedy, Mrs. G. Goes to College (retitled The Gertrude Berg Show at mid-season). The series was cancelled after one season.

Radio In 1945, Hardwicke played Sherlock Holmes in a BBC Radio dramatisation of The Speckled Band, opposite Finlay Currie as Dr. Watson. Years later, Hardwicke's son Edward played Watson in the acclaimed Granada series.

Hardwicke played the titular role in a short-lived revival of the Bulldog Drummond radio program on the Mutual Broadcasting System, which ran 3 January 1954 to 28 March 1954.

Personal life In 1928, he married the English actress Helena Pickard. They divorced in 1948; their son was actor Edward Hardwicke. His second marriage, which produced a son, Michael, and likewise ended in divorce, was to actress Mary Scott (1921–2009), from 1950 to 1961.

A lifelong heavy smoker, he suffered from emphysema and died, 6 August 1964, at the age of 71, in New York, from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Hardwicke's body was flown back to England; after a memorial service he was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium in north London, where his ashes were scattered.

Legacy Hardwicke left two volumes of memoirs: Let's Pretend: Recollections and Reflections of a Lucky Actor, 1932 and A Victorian in Orbit: The Irreverent Memoirs (as told to James Brough), 1961.

Hardwicke has a motion pictures star and a television star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Salome (1953) as Tiberius Caesar The War of the Worlds (1953) as Commentary (voice) Bait (1954) as Prologue Speaker Richard III (1955) as King Edward IV of England Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1956) (Season 2 Episode 1 (No 40 in the series: "Wet Saturday") as Mr. Princey Diane (1956) as Ruggieri Helen of Troy (1956) as Priam Gaby (1956) as Mr. Edgar Carrington The Vagabond King (1956) as Tristan The Power and the Prize (1956) as Mr. Carew The Ten Commandments (1956) as Sethi Around the World in 80 Days (1956) as Sir Francis Cromarty Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1957) (Season 2 Episode 33: "A Man Greatly Beloved") as "John Anderson" The Story of Mankind (1957) as High Judge Baby Face Nelson (1957) as Doc Saunders Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962) as Fergusson Twilight Zone (November 14,1963) (Season 5 Episode 8: "Uncle Simon") as Uncle Simon The Pumpkin Eater (1964) as Mr. James - Jo's father (posthumous release; final film role) The Outer Limits (1964) as Colas in "The Forms of Things Unknown" (posthumous release; final role)

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