Henry Daniell

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Charles Henry Daniell (5 March 1894 – 31 October 1963) was an English actor who had a long and prestigious career on stage as well as in films. He is perhaps best known for his villainous roles in films like The Great Dictator, The Philadelphia Story and The Sea Hawk. Daniell was given few opportunities to play a 'good guy', including a supporting part as Franz Liszt in the biographical film Song of Love (1947). His last name is sometimes spelled "Daniel".

Daniell's film debut came in 1929 in Jealousy. He appeared as Professor Moriarty in the Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes film The Woman in Green (1945). He appeared in other films such as Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940) (playing Garbitsch, to sound like "garbage", a parody of Joseph Goebbels), and The Body Snatcher (1945, with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi) – as well as two other films in the Sherlock Holmes/Basil Rathbone series: The Voice of Terror (1942) and Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943) with fellow Moriarty George Zucco.

Daniell played the sleazy Baron de Varville opposite Greta Garbo in Camille (1936). Another early triumph was his portrayal of Cecil in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939). He also played the treacherous Lord Wolfingham (no relation to Francis Walsingham) in The Sea Hawk (1940), fighting Errol Flynn in what is often considered one of the most spectacular sword fighting duels ever filmed. When Michael Curtiz cast him in this film, Henry Daniell initially refused because he couldn't fence. Curtiz accomplished the climactic duel through the use of shadows and over-shoulder shots, with a double fencing Flynn with ingenious inter-cutting of their faces.

Towards the end of the Second World War, he appeared in one of his most memorable film roles, as the cruel Mr. Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre (1944), opposite Joan Fontaine who played Eyre. That same year he appeared in The Suspect as Charles Laughton's blackmailing next-door neighbour. In the 1950s and 1960s, he did much television, and also appeared as the malevolent Dr. Emil Zurich in Edward L. Cahn's The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959), and in an episode of Maverick, "Pappy" opposite James Garner the same year. An absolute professional, he was always on the set when needed, and impatient when delays in filming took place. Much in demand for his dry, sardonic delivery, Daniell moved easily from big-budget films, such as (uncredited) Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), to television without difficulty. In 1957, Daniell appeared as King Charles II of England in the NBC anthology series The Joseph Cotten Show in the episode "The Trial of Colonel Blood", with Michael Wilding in the title role. In the same year he played the instructing solicitor to Charles Laughton's leading counsel barrister in Witness for the Prosecution (1957).

The actor claimed one of his favourite roles was as Tony Curtis' supervisor in the acclaimed Blake Edwards film Mister Cory (1957) at a time when the actor's career was clearly slowing down, but Daniell retained some of the best and most memorable lines in the movie, "A gentleman never grabs. Manners, Mister Cory. I find them a prerequisite in any circumstance."

The Great Dictator

8.3

Witness for the Prosecution

8.2

My Fair Lady

7.5

The Philadelphia Story

7.6

Mutiny on the Bounty

7.0

Holiday

7.3

The Comancheros

6.7

Lust for Life

7.1

The Body Snatcher

7.0

Jane Eyre

6.9

The Sea Hawk

7.2

Camille

7.0

The Woman in Green

6.4

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

5.7

Combat!

7.6

Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror

6.5

The Egyptian

6.4

The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex

6.2

Sherlock Holmes in Washington

6.7

A Woman's Face

7.0

The Suspect

6.7

The Notorious Landlady

6.7

Les Girls

6.4

All This, and Heaven Too

7.1

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

6.8

Watch on the Rhine

6.8

Wake of the Red Witch

5.5

Maverick

6.8

The Sun Also Rises

5.9

Marie Antoinette

6.4

Captain Kidd

6.0

Five Weeks in a Balloon

5.4

From the Earth to the Moon

5.2

Wagon Train

6.4

The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake

5.9

The Story of Mankind

4.6

77 Sunset Strip

6.7

Dressed to Kill

6.4

Mission to Moscow

5.2

Reunion in France

6.6

Peter Gunn

6.5

Thriller

6.4

Castle in the Desert

6.8

The Chapman Report

5.3

Buccaneer's Girl

5.6

Siren of Atlantis

5.2

Hotel Berlin

6.1

Studio One

4.7

Diane

5.7

The Bandit of Sherwood Forest

4.9

The Exile

6.1

Song of Love

6.7

Mister Cory

5.7

The Feminine Touch

5.1

The Prodigal

4.0

The Thirteenth Chair

5.8

The Philco Television Playhouse

6.0

Madame X

6.2

The Firefly

6.4

Lux Video Theatre

6.0

Matinee Theater

4.6

Riverboat

6.2

The Unguarded Hour

6.2

Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse

5.3

Madison Avenue

6.0

Under Cover of Night

5.7

We Are Not Alone

6.2

Four Jacks and a Jill

6.0

The Great Impersonation

5.8

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

7.0

Producers' Showcase

6.3

Lights Out

5.3

Telephone Time

6.3

Hitler: The Comedy Years

5.0

The Secret Of St. Ives

6.0

The Last of the Lone Wolf

6.0

Nightmare

4.0

The Islanders

8.0

The Awful Truth

0.0

Angel Street

0.0

The Path of Glory

0.0

The Barretts of Wimpole Street

0.0

Jealousy

0.0