Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A reverend turned actor, best known for his stage and screen career, starting with understudying in Iris.
On the island
Eight records
The keepsakes
The book
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:16What did you want to be when you were small?
I hadn't made up my mind. I thought I'd like to be an artist, but I wasn't good enough. My father was a very clever artist and a wonderful draftsman, but he wasn't a professional. But I wasn't good enough. And then when I got older, I decided I wanted to be an actor.
Presenter asks
0:34Did you go to the theatre a lot as a child?
Oh yes. I we w we were taken to the theatre. Uh of course, I saw the pantomimes when I was very young. I suppose I saw Peter Pan when I was about eight. I lived just uh uh between uh Crouch End and Highgate. And our local theatre was The Marlborough at Hornsey. And I saw my first sophisticated play there, which I think was The Three Musketeers with Lewis Waller. Yes. And I'm not perfectly certain that that was the first. It could have been a a Fred Terry in The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Presenter asks
1:24What did you do when you were demobilized [after the First World War]?
When I was demobilized I went into my father's firm, which is manufacturing opticians. And I hated every moment of it when I said I wanted to go in the theater. I I had two and a half years battle with my father. He said no. He said if you go out of my business on to the stage, you go out of my house as well. Which I finally did, with, I must admit, not without a penny in my pocket. I had some support from my mother. Good for her.
Roland Culver
The luxury
Not recorded.
Presenter asks
2:06What was your first professional engagement?
Well, I I I think it was a tour during the summer holidays from the Academy, but that was insignificant and of no consequence. The first one that was really any significance was understudying Ivanovella in Iris, a Panero play in which Gladys Cooper was the leading lady. I also understudied the butler. On one occasion the butler was off. Well the butler was a man of six foot, and at that time I was only twenty four, and I had quite a lot of fair hair. Unlike the present. And I covered myself in lines and wrinkles and did everything I could. But Gladys Cooper hadn't been warned that the butler was off. And I had to announce various people, so and so, misses so and so, And I flung open the doors. Not my cure. and said, Lady and mister Push, And Gladys looked at me and said, Oh, my God.
Presenter asks
3:08What was your first success?
Well, my first Smash success. and everybody in the cast was a success. was of course Rattikin's French Without Tears. That was in nineteen thirty six. I did make a slight success in a thriller about a year before that distinguished gathering, but uh But nothing like French Without Tears and that It really carried us all to the high spots.
Presenter asks
7:16Did you enjoy Hollywood?
I must say that I am a very lazy person naturally, and if I can play golf every day, which I did, I lived in a house overlooking the Riviera golf course, and I was a member of the club. I played golf all day. There was a swimming pool. Weather's always marvellous. I of course some of the publicity and the boredom of the Hollywood thing of course that is true, but by and large it's a damn good life. As long as one isn't there forever.
“I hadn't made up my mind. I thought I'd like to be an artist, but I wasn't good enough. My father was a very clever artist and a wonderful draftsman, but he wasn't a professional. But I wasn't good enough. And then when I got older, I decided I wanted to be an actor.”
“I had two and a half years battle with my father. He said no. He said if you go out of my business on to the stage, you go out of my house as well.”
“My first Smash success. and everybody in the cast was a success. was of course Rattikin's French Without Tears.”
“I am a very lazy person naturally, and if I can play golf every day, which I did, I lived in a house overlooking the Riviera golf course, and I was a member of the club. I played golf all day.”
“I of course some of the publicity and the boredom of the Hollywood thing of course that is true, but by and large it's a damn good life. As long as one isn't there forever.”