James Neville Mason (15 May
1909–27 July 1984) was a British
actor who attained stardom in both British
and American
films. Throughout his career, Mason remained a
powerful figure in the industry and he is now regarded as one of
the finest film actors of the
20th
century. He was nominated for three
Academy Awards and three
Golden Globes (he won a Golden Globe
once).
Biography
Early life
Mason was
born in Huddersfield
, West Yorkshire, to
John and Mabel Mason; his father was a wealthy merchant.
Mason had no formal training as an actor and initially embarked
upon it for fun.
He was educated at Marlborough
College
, and earned a first in
architecture at Peterhouse, Cambridge
where he became involved in stock theatre companies
in his spare time. After Cambridge he joined the Old Vic
theatre in
London
under the guidance of Tyrone Guthrie and Alexander Korda, who gave Mason a small film
role in 1933 but fired him a few days into shooting.
Career
From
1935 to 1948 he starred in many
British
quota quickies.
A
conscientious objector
during
World War II (something which
caused his family to break with him for many years), he became
immensely popular for his brooding anti-heroes in the
Gainsborough series of melodramas of
the 1940s, including
The Man in
Grey and
The Wicked
Lady. He also starred with
Deborah
Kerr and
Robert Newton in 1942's
Hatter's Castle.
Mason starred in the critically acclaimed and immensely popular
The Seventh Veil that set
box office records in postwar Britain and catapulted him to
international film stardom.
In 1949, he made
his first Hollywood
film, Caught, and then went on to star in
many more feature films and early TV shows.
Mason's distinctive voice enabled him to play a menacing villain as
greatly as his good looks assisted him as a leading man. His roles
include the declining actor in the 1954 version of
A Star Is Born, a mortally
wounded Irish revolutionary in
Odd Man
Out, Brutus in
Julius Caesar, General
Erwin Rommel twice—in
The Desert Fox: The Story of
Rommel, and in
The Desert Rats—Captain
Nemo in
20,000 Leagues Under
the Sea, a small town school teacher driven insane by the
effects of Cortisone in
Bigger Than
Life, a suave master spy in
North by Northwest, a determined
explorer in
Journey to the
Center of the Earth,
Humbert
Humbert in
Stanley Kubrick's
Lolita, a hired assassin
sent to kill
Peter O'Toole's character
in
Lord Jim, the
vampire's servant, Richard Straker, in
Salem's
Lot, and a surreal pirate captain in
Yellowbeard. One of his last roles, that of
corrupt lawyer Ed Concannon in
The
Verdict, earned him his third and final Oscar
nomination.
Mason was once considered to play
James
Bond in a 1958 TV adaptation of
From Russia with Love,
which was ultimately never produced. Despite being in his fifties,
he was still under consideration to play Bond in
Dr. No before
Sean
Connery was cast. He was also approached to appear as Bond
villain Hugo Drax in
Moonraker, however, he turned this
down despite his renowned tendency to take any job offered him –
which led to appearances in films such as
The Yin and the Yang of Mr.
Go,
Bloodline and
Hunt the Man Down. His
final screen-work was playing the lead role in
Dr Fischer of
Geneva (adapted from the
Graham
Greene novel of the same title) as the eccentric wealthy
businessman who played games with the Swiss upper class, such as
offering gifts to his guests on the proviso they accepted some
humiliating ritual activity (such as wearing a child's bib at the
dinner table).
In the late 1970s, Mason became a mentor to up-and-coming actor
Sam Neill.
Late in life, he served as narrator for a British television series
on the films of
Charlie Chaplin,
Unknown Chaplin, which was aired in the U.S. on
PBS and later issued on home video.
Private life
Mason was a devoted lover of
animals,
particularly cats. He and
Pamela
Kellino Mason co-authored the book
The Cats in Our Lives, which was
published in 1949. James Mason wrote most of the book and also
illustrated it. In
The Cats in Our
Lives, he recounted humorous and sometimes touching tales of
the
cats (as well as a few
dogs) he had known and loved.
Mason was married twice:
- Firstly from 1941 to 1964 to British-American actress Pamela Mason (née Ostrer) (1916-1996); one
daughter, Portland Mason Schuyler (1948–2004), and one son,
Morgan (who is married to Belinda Carlisle, the former lead singer of
The Go-Go's). Portland Mason was named
after Portland Hoffa, the wife of the
American radio comedian Fred Allen; the
Allens and the Masons were friends.
- Australian actress Clarissa Kaye
(1971-his death). Tobe Hooper's DVD commentary for Salem's Lot reveals that Mason regularly
worked contractual clauses into his later work guaranteeing Kaye
bit parts in his film appearances.
Mason's autobiography,
Before I Forget, was published in
1981.
Death
Mason
survived a major heart attack
in 1959 and died as a result of another on July 27, 1984 in
Lausanne
, Switzerland
. He was cremated and
(after a delay of 16 years) his ashes were buried in Corsier-sur-Vevey
, Vaud
,
Switzerland. The remains of Mason's old friend Charlie Chaplin are in a tomb
a few steps
away.
Mason's widow, Clarissa Kaye, also known as Kaye-Mason, died in
1994 from cancer.
Filmography
References
External links
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