An actor, playwright and screenwriter, Miles Malleson’s list of credits reads like a history of the British cinema in the first half of the 20th century. Born in Croydon in Surrey, he attended Brighton College in Sussex before studying at Cambridge University with the intention of becoming a schoolmaster. However, he opted instead for the stage and went into repertory theatre in Liverpool and then onto the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
He wrote his first play in 1913 and, in contrast to the characters he would often portray on screen, held socially progressive views which were often reflected in his work. His output included two plays about the First World War, ‘D Company’ and ‘Black ’Ell’, and one about the Tolpuddle Martyrs. He also worked as a screenwriter on two documentaries for Paul Rotha, ‘Land of Promise’ and ‘World of Plenty’.
His most prolific period as a screenwriter was in the 1930s and 1940s, initially on historical subjects like Nell Gwyn (1934… read more
An actor, playwright and screenwriter, Miles Malleson’s list of credits reads like a history of the British cinema in the first half of the 20th century. Born in Croydon in Surrey, he attended Brighton College in Sussex before studying at Cambridge University with the intention of becoming a schoolmaster. However, he opted instead for the stage and went into repertory theatre in Liverpool and then onto the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
He wrote his first play in 1913 and, in contrast to the characters he would often portray on screen, held socially progressive views which were often reflected in his work. His output included two plays about the First World War, ‘D Company’ and ‘Black ’Ell’, and one about the Tolpuddle Martyrs. He also worked as a screenwriter on two documentaries for Paul Rotha, ‘Land of Promise’ and ‘World of Plenty’.
His most prolific period as a screenwriter was in the 1930s and 1940s, initially on historical subjects like Nell Gwyn (1934), Rhodes of Africa (1936), and Victoria the Great (1937). In many of these films he also began appearing in supporting roles, and from the mid-1930s onwards he found himself in increasing demand as an actor as well as a writer. Over the next 30 years he would appear in nearly a hundred films, featuring in everything from Hitchcock thrillers and Ealing comedies to Hammer horrors.
Usually cast as a befuddled judge or a doddery old doctor, academic or other local eccentric, he first caught audiences’ imagination as the hearse driver in the Ealing chiller compendium Dead of Night (1945), after which he began to claim bigger and better parts. He was particularly memorable as the philosophical hangman in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), Canon Chasuble in The Importance of Being Earnest (1952), Dr McAdam in Folly to Be Wise (1953), the barrister Grimes in Brothers in Law (1957), and as Windrush Snr in Private’s Progress (1956) and I’m All Right, Jack (1959). Towards the end of his career he continued to appear in cameo roles in comedy films, and made several appearances in Hammer horror films including Dracula (1958) and The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), before failing eyesight forced him into retirement in his late 70s. —IMDb
