Kenneth More

Infobox actor
name = Kenneth More


caption = More in the trailer of "Sink the Bismarck!"
birthname = Kenneth Gilbert More
birthdate = birth date|1914|9|20|df=y
location = Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, England
deathdate = death date and age|1982|7|12|1914|9|20|df=y
deathplace = London, England
othername =
website =
spouse = Beryl Johnstone
Mabel Barkby
Angela Douglas

Kenneth Gilbert More CBE (20 September 1914 – 12 July 1982) was an English actor.

Early life

More was born in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the only son of Charles Gilbert More, a Royal Naval Air Service pilot, and Edith Winifred Watkins, the daughter of a Cardiff solicitor. He was educated at Victoria College, Jersey. He spent part of his childhood in the Channel Islands, where his father was general manager of Jersey Eastern Railways. After he left school, he followed the family tradition by training as a civil engineer. He gave his training up and worked for a while in Sainsburys.

When More was 17, his father died and he applied to join the RAF, but was rejected for lack of educational qualifications. He went to Canada, intending to work as a fur trapper but was sent back for lacking immigration papers.

Acting career

On his return, a family friend, Vivian Van Damm, took him on as assistant manager at the Windmill Theatre, where his job included spotting audience members misbehaving or using opera glasses to look at the nude players during its "Revudeville" variety shows."More or Less", Kenneth More, Hodder and Stoughton, 1978, ISBN 034022603] He was soon promoted to playing straight man in the "Revudeville" comedy routines. This led to regular work in repertory, including Newcastle and Wolverhampton, until World War II. He served as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, seeing active service aboard the cruiser HMS "Aurora" and the aircraft carrier HMS "Victorious", returning to acting in 1946. After various roles in the West End, he attracted particular attention through his performance as Freddie in Terence Rattigan's "The Deep Blue Sea".

In the 1950s he entered into a contract with the Rank Organisation, which led to a successful career in starring roles for a decade. He enjoyed great success in films of the 1950s after winning a BAFTA as best newcomer for "Doctor in the House" in 1954. He played the lead role in the seminal Titanic movie "A Night to Remember" in 1958. He specialised in likable, unflappable English heroes ("an air of hectoring confidence ... heroic in a cocky big-brotherly way") ["Shepperton Babylon", The Lost Worlds of British Cinema, Matthew Sweet, Faber & Faber, 2005, ISBN 0571212972] , a persona that could in some roles show darker aspects, as with the controlling Crighton in "The Admirable Crichton" and the brash Ambrose Claverhouse in "Genevieve". In 1959, Rank's John Davis gave permission for More to work outside his contract to appear in "The Guns of Navarone". More, however, made the mistake of heckling and swearing at Davis at a BAFTA dinner at the Dorchester, losing both the role (which went to David Niven) and his contract with Rank.

He later appeared in a number of all-star war films, among them "Sink the Bismarck!", (1960), "The Longest Day" (1962), "Battle of Britain" (1969), and "Oh! What a Lovely War" (1969).

His film parts got smaller in the 1960s, but his popularity recovered through West End stage performances and television roles, especially following his success in "The Forsyte Saga", and as the title character in ATV's 1974 "Father Brown". He is also known for his role as the Ghost of Christmas Present in 1970's "Scrooge".

Personal life

More was married three times. His first marriage in 1939 to actress Beryl Johnstone (one daughter, Susan, born 1941) ended in divorce in 1946. He married Mabel Edith "Bill" Barkby in 1952 (one daughter, Sarah, born 1954) but left her in 1968 for Angela Douglas, an actress 26 years his junior, causing considerable estrangement from friends and family. He was married to Douglas (whom he nicknamed "Shrimp") from March 17 1968 until his death.

Kenneth More published two autobiographies, "Happy Go Lucky" in 1959 and "More or Less" in 1978.

He died in London from Parkinson's disease on 12 July 1982, aged 67, and was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium.

The Kenneth More Theatre, named in his honour, is in Ilford, Essex.

Filmography

*"Look Up and Laugh" (1935) (uncredited bit part)
*"Windmill Revels" (1937) (uncredited bit part)
*"Carry On London" (1937) (bit part)
*"The Silence of the Sea" (1946) (TV)
*"School for Secrets" (1946)
*"Toad of Toad Hall" (1946) (TV)
*"Scott of the Antarctic" (1948)
*"Man on the Run" (1949)
*"Now Barabbas" (1949)
*"Stop Press Girl" (1949)
*"Morning Departure" (1950)
*"Chance of a Lifetime" (1950)
*"The Clouded Yellow" (1951)
*"The Franchise Affair" (1951)
*"The Galloping Major" (1951)
*"No Highway" (1951) (uncredited)
*"Appointment with Venus" (1951)
*"Brandy for the Parson" (1952)
*"The Yellow Balloon" (1953)
*"Never Let Me Go" (1953)
*"Genevieve" (1953)
*"Our Girl Friday" (1953)
*"Doctor in the House" (1954)
*"The Man Who Loved Redheads" (1955) (voice)
*"Raising a Riot" (1955)
*"The Deep Blue Sea" (1955)
*"Reach for the Sky" (1956)
*"The Admirable Crichton" (1957)
*"The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw" (1958)
*"A Night to Remember" (1958)
*"Next to No Time" (1958)
*"Northwest Frontier" (1959)
*"The Thirty-Nine Steps" (1959)
*"Sink the Bismarck!" (1960)
*"Man in the Moon" (1960)
*"The Greengage Summer" (1961) (TV)
*"We Joined the Navy" (1962)
*"Heart to Heart" (1962) (TV)
*"Some People" (1962)
*"The Longest Day" (1962)
*"The Comedy Man" (1963)
*"The Collector" (1965) (uncredited)
*"Lord Raingo" (1966) (TV)
*"The Forsyte Saga" (1967) (TV)
*"Dark of the Sun", also known as "The Mercenaries" (1968)
*"Fräulein Doktor" (1969)
*"Oh! What a Lovely War" (1969)
*"Battle of Britain" (1969)
*"Scrooge" (1970)
*" "Fr. Brown" (1974) (TV)
*"The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella" (1976)
*"Leopard in the Snow" (1978)
*"An Englishman's Castle" (1978) (TV)
*"The Spaceman and King Arthur" (1979)
*"A Tale of Two Cities" (1980) (TV)

References

*Sheridan Morley, "More, Kenneth Gilbert (1914–1982)", "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/57316 accessed 12 Sept 2007]

External links

*imdb name | id=0603336 | name=Kenneth MoreKenneth More Theatre - http://www.kenneth-more-theatre.co.uk/