 A dependable, somewhat stolid leading man who became a ditto character player as he aged. He just made it into WW1, was on stage from 1919 and persistently in the West End, with sorties to Broadway and, from 1924, balanced films with his theatre work. He appeared in over 20 films in Britain, including several for Hitchcock, before settling in Hollywood in the mid '30s. He found a very profitable niche as English gents in such Brit-set enterprises as The Adventures of Robin Hood (US, d. Michael Curtiz, 1938), as King Richard, and he depicted upright decency in several dozen films, playing Bette Davis's leading man in The Girl from 10th Avenue (US, d. Alfred E. Green, 1935). He returned to England during WW2 to join the Navy, and postwar played a series of dull heroes (one is on Margaret Lockwood's side as she plans his demise in Bedelia, d. Lance Comfort, 1946), before succumbing to supporting status as Group Captains and the like. He repeated his stage role from Edward, My Son (1948) on film the following year (d. George Cukor). Brian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of British Film
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