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Roddy McDowall |
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Real Name: McDowall, Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude
Height: 5' 10"
Born: 17 September 1928, Herne Hill, London, England, UK
Deceased: 3 October 1998, Studio City, California, USA. (lung cancer) |
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Roderick McDowall was born in London, the son of a merchant mariner father and a mother who had always wanted to be in movies. He was enrolled in elocution courses at age 5 and by age 10 appeared in his first movie, "Murder in the Family (1938)" , playing Peter Osborne, the younger brother of sisters played by Jessica Tandy and Glynis Johns. His mother brought Roddy and his sister to the United States at the beginning of World War II where he got the part of Huw, youngest child of Welsh coal-miners, in William Wyler's (later John Ford's) "How Green Was My Valley (1941)" , playing with 'Walter Pidgeon' , Maureen O'Hara and 'Donald Crisp (I)' in the film which won that year's best film Oscar. He went on to many other child roles, in "Flicka" and "Lassie" movies until, aged 18, he moved to New York where he played a long series of successful roles on Broadway, including Shakespeare at Connecticut's Stratford Festival). In addition to making many more movies (over 150), McDowall acted in television, developed an extensive collection of movies and memorabilia, and published five books of his own photography. He died at his Los Angeles home, aged 70, of cancer. Ed Stephan <stephan@cc.wwu.edu> Trivia:
Final stage appearance was as Ebenezer Scrooge in the New York City
production of "A Christmas Carol" in 1997. He alternated performances
with Hal Linden.
Performed custom voice-over work for the Training Level of the
PlayStation game, "A Bug's Life" (1998). [source: game credits]
A clerical error on the part of the Academy cost McDowall an Academy
Award nomination for best supporting actor for his role as Caesar
Augustus Octavian in "Cleopatra (1963)" .
(December 1998) The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS)
honor Roddy McDowall for his acting career and critically acclaimed
photography by naming its photo archive after him. The collection,
which includes several millions of negatives and stills, will be known
as the Roddy McDowall Photograph Archive at the Margaret Herrick
Library.
(1998) Ashes scattered in the Pacific Ocean.
In 1974, the FBI raided the home of Roddy McDowall and seized the
actor's collection of bootlegged classic films. The actor was not
charged and agreed to cooperate with the FBI.
Roddy has appeared in two separate television series of Batman. The
original 1960s series (as Bookworm), and 'Batman: The Animated Series'
(as the Mad Hatter).
In addition to appearing on both the original and animated "Batman" TV
series, he also the reader for the book-on-tape version of the
novelization of the first "Batman" film (1989).
Roddy McDowall was a rarity among movie stars in that he appears to
have made no enemies at all during his lifetime. A man with numerous
friends both in and out of show business, those who knew him continue
to speak well of him to this day, and his funeral drew overflow
crowds.
On March 10, 1965, he attended the Los Angeles premiere of "The Sound
of Music" as the date of the movie's star, Julie Andrews.
Life-long friend of Elizabeth Taylor. Taylor has since referred to him
as the one friend she had to whom she confided everything, and who was
always understanding.Quotes:
"Intellectually I'd love to play Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named
Desire … Can't you just imagine me down in the streets yelling 'Stella!
Stella!' God, the critics would have a lot of fun with that one."
"I really liked Lassie, but that horse, Flicka, was a nasty animal with
a terrible disposition. All the Flickas — all six of them — were
awful." [On his roles as a child actor] |
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