Robert Donat

Beginning his career in theatre, Donat made his stage debut in 1921 playing Lucius in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, and in 1928 he appeared in productions at the Liverpool Playhouse, starring in plays by John Galsworthy, George Bernard Shaw among others, before moving to London in 1930. He appeared in the West End when he starred in A Sleeping Clergyman in 1933, and in 1936 he took on the management of the West End's Queen's Theatre. In his book, The Age of the Dream Palace, Jeffrey Richards wrote that Donat was "British cinema's one undisputed romantic leading man in the 1930s". "The image he projected was that of the romantic idealist, often with a dash of the gentleman adventurer." Donat suffered from chronic asthma, which affected his career and limited him to appearing in only 19 films.

• Name — Robert Donat • Birth Name — Friedrich Robert Donat • Born — 18 March 1905 • Birthplace — Withington, Manchester, England • Died — 9 June 1958 • Place of death — London, England • Occupation — Actor • Years Active — 1921–1958 • Children — 3 • Relatives — Peter Donat (nephew) Richard Donat (nephew)

Friedrich Robert Donat was born and baptised in Withington, Manchester, the fourth and youngest son of Ernst Emil Donat, a civil engineer of German origin from Prussia, and his wife, Rose Alice Green. He was of English, Polish, German and French descent and was educated at Manchester Central Grammar School for Boys. His older brother was Philip Donat, father of actors Richard and Peter Donat. To cope with a bad stammer, he took elocution lessons with James Bernard, a leading teacher of "dramatic interpretation". He left school at 15, working as Bernard's secretary to fund his continued lessons.

Donat made his first stage appearance in 1921, at the age of 16, with Henry Baynton's company at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Birmingham, playing Lucius in Julius Caesar. His break came in 1924 when he joined the company of Shakespearean actor Sir Frank Benson, where he stayed for four years. In 1928, he began a year at the Liverpool Playhouse, starring in plays by John Galsworthy, George Bernard Shaw and Harold Brighouse, among others. In 1929, he played at the Festival Theatre in Cambridge under the direction of Tyrone Guthrie. He appeared in a number of plays, some with Flora Robson, and also directed. In 1929, Donat married Ella Annesley Voysey (1903 West Bromwich, Staffordshire – 1994), the daughter of Rev. Ellison Annesley Voysey and Rachel Voysey née Enthoven. Ellison was the youngest son of the theist Rev. Charles Voysey. The couple had two sons and a daughter, but divorced in 1946. In 1930, Donat and his wife moved to London, where he eventually made his debut in Knave and Quean at the Ambassadors Theatre. He received acclaim for a performance in a revival of Saint Joan. In 1931, he achieved notice as Gideon Sarn in a dramatisation of the Mary Webb novel, Precious Bane, and he played various roles at the 1931 Malvern Festival. In the early 1930s, he was known in the industry as "screen test Donat" because of his many unsuccessful auditions for various film producers. MGM producer Irving Thalberg spotted him on the London stage in Precious Bane, and offered him a part in the 1932 film Smilin' Through, which he declined.

MGM wanted Donat to star in a movie about Beau Brummell and a new version of Pride and Prejudice but that was delayed by the war. During the early days of the Second World War Donat focused on the stage. He played three roles at the 1939 Buxton Festival, including a part in The Good-Natur’d Man. He had the title role in the film The Young Mr. Pitt (1942) for 20th Century Fox and played Captain Shotover in a new staging of Heartbreak House at the Cambridge Theatre in London from 1942 to 1943. For MGM British he starred in the film The Adventures of Tartu (1943), with Valerie Hobson. Donat wanted to play the Chorus in Olivier's Henry V, but his contract with MGM prevented this and the role went to Leslie Banks. In 1943, he took over the lease of the Westminster Theatre, staging a number of plays there until 1945, including An Ideal Husband (1943–44), The Glass Slipper (1944) and The Cure for Love (1945) by Walter Greenwood. With the latter, which he directed, he began his professional association with Renée Asherson, later his second wife. Donat was reunited with Korda for the film Perfect Strangers (1945), known in the United States as Vacation from Marriage, with Deborah Kerr. It was his last film for MGM British. During the Second World War MGM Studios "adopted" RCAF 427 "Lion" Squadron. The Studio and Actors sent packages and letters to 427's personnel. Heavy Bombers carried the names of MGM stars to battle in the skies over Europe, among these Robert Donat whose name was borne by a Handley-Page Halifax heavy bomber. https: www.bombercommandmuseumarchives.ca/noseart/?sq=427&go=Go

In 1946, Donat and Asherson appeared at the Aldwych Theatre in a production of Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Donat. He also directed The Man Behind the Statue by Peter Ustinov. Both lost money. In early 1947, immediately following his release from MGM-British, Eagle-Lion Films planned to shoot Gerald Butler's Kiss the Blood Off My Hands with Donat in the lead and purchased the screen rights to the novel. The film was not made and the screen rights were scooped up by Burt Lancaster who starred in a 1948 film version. Donat had a small but crucial scene as Irish leader Charles Stewart Parnell in Captain Boycott (1947) with Stewart Granger. He appeared on stage in a revival of A Sleeping Clergyman in 1947. He auditioned as Bill Sikes in David Lean's Oliver Twist (1948), but Lean thought him wrong for the part and cast Robert Newton instead. Donat played the male lead in The Winslow Boy (1948), a popular adaptation of the Terence Rattigan play. Donat and Asherson reprised their stage roles in the film version of The Cure for Love (1949). His only film as director, its production was affected by his ill health. The film's soundtrack had to be re-recorded after shooting was completed because Donat's asthma had severely affected his voice. Modestly received by a reviewer in The Monthly Film Bulletin, and described as "pedestrian" by Philip French in 2009, it was a hit in the North. In this film, Donat used his natural Mancunian accent, which his early elocution lessons had attempted to suppress completely. Donat appeared on radio. In October 1949, he did a performance of Justice by John Galsworthy on Theatre Guild on the Air for America. Donat and Asherson also appeared in The Magic Box (1951), in which Donat played William Friese-Greene. However, his asthma continued to affect his ability to perform. He was cast as Thomas Becket in T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral in Robert Helpmann's production at The Old Vic theatre in 1952 but, although his return to stage was well received, his illness forced him to withdraw during the run. For the same reason, he dropped out of the film Hobson's Choice (1954). Scheduled to play Willy Mossop, he was replaced by John Mills. Author David Shipman speculates that Donat's asthma may have been psychosomatic: "His tragedy was that the promise of his early years was never fulfilled and that he was haunted by agonies of doubt and disappointment (which probably were the cause of his chronic asthma)." David Thomson also suggested this explanation, and Donat himself thought that his illness had a 90% basis in his psychology. In a 1980 interview with Barry Norman, his first wife, Ella Annesley Voysey (by then known as Ella Hall), said that Donat had an asthma attack as a psychosomatic response to the birth of their daughter. According to her, "Robert was full of fear". Lease of Life (1954), made by Ealing Studios, was his penultimate film. In it, Donat played a vicar who discovers that he has a terminal illness. Donat's final role was the Mandarin of Yang Cheng in The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958). His last words in the film, an emotional soliloquy in which the Mandarin confesses his conversion to Christianity, were prophetic: "We shall not see each other again, I think. Farewell". It reduced Ingrid Bergman, playing the missionary Gladys Aylward, to tears. He had collapsed with a stroke during filming but managed to recover enough to complete the film.

• Illustration — English Heritage blue plaque at 8 Meadway, Hampstead Garden Suburb, London In 1929, Donat married Ella Annesley Voysey, niece of architect Charles Voysey. They had one daughter, Joanna Donat (born 1931) and two sons, John Donat (born 1933) and Brian Donat (born 1936), but divorced in 1946. On 4 May 1953, Donat married again, to actress Renée Asherson, born Dorothy Renee Ascherson, daughter of Charles Ascherson and Dorothy Lilian Wiseman. They lived at 8 The Grove, Highgate until their separation three years later, partly owing to the severity of his asthma. They may have been close to a reconciliation when he died. She never remarried.

Donat died at the West End Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery in Soho, London, on 9 June 1958, aged 53. His biographer Kenneth Barrow said he had "... a brain tumour the size of a duck egg and cerebral thrombosis was certified as the primary cause of death". His body was cremated privately in Marylebone three days after his death. He left an estate worth £25,236.

• Year — Title — Role(s) — Director • 1932 — Men of Tomorrow — Julian Angell — Leontine Sagan • That Night in London — Dick Warren — Rowland V. Lee • 1933 — Cash — Paul Martin — Zoltan Korda • The Private Life of Henry VIII — Thomas Culpeper — Alexander Korda • 1934 — The Count of Monte Cristo — Edmond Dantès — Rowland V. Lee • 1935 — The 39 Steps — Richard Hannay — Alfred Hitchcock • The Ghost Goes West — Murdoch Glourie / Donald Glourie — René Clair • 1937 — Knight Without Armour — A.J. Fothergill / Peter Ouranoff — Jacques Feyder • 1938 — The Citadel — Dr. Andrew Manson — King Vidor • 1939 — Goodbye, Mr. Chips — Mr. Chips — Sam Wood • 1942 — The Young Mr. Pitt — Pitt the Younger / Earl of Chatham — Carol Reed • 1943 — The Adventures of Tartu — Capt. Terence Stevenson / Capt. Jan Tartu — Harold S. Bucquet • 1945 — Perfect Strangers — Robert Wilson — Alexander Korda • 1947 — Captain Boycott — Charles Stewart Parnell — Frank Launder • 1948 — The Winslow Boy — Sir Robert Morton — Anthony Asquith • 1949 — The Cure for Love — Sgt. Jack Hardacre — Himself • 1951 — The Magic Box — William Friese-Greene — John Boulting • 1954 — Lease of Life — Rev. William Thorne — Charles Frend • 1958 — The Inn of the Sixth Happiness — The Mandarin of Yangcheng — Mark Robson

Robert Donat was recorded at birth as Friedrich Robert Donath. His recorded language was English. He was the child of Ernst Emil Donat. He married Renée Asherson.

Robert Donat is recorded as having received Academy Award for Best Actor and star on Hollywood Walk of Fame.