Born Today December 21: Robin Irvine

 

1901-1933

 

British stage and screen actor Robin Irvine was born Leslie Robins Irvine on this day in London--in the Stoke Newington area of Hackney.  He made his acting debut on the stage in 1918 while still at school, subsequently making his professional stage debut in London in 1923.  Just two years later, he made his film debut in a supporting role in the fantasy drama The Secret Kingdom starring Canadian born actor Matheson Lang, whom resembled Irvine to the point of being a bit scary, a brilliant bit of casting, since Irvine was playing the son in the film. He did not make another film for two years; when, in 1927, he shows up in the lesser known Alfred Hitchcock film Downhill (also known as When Boys Leave Home) in another supporting role, this time to Ivor Novello's lead. Also appearing in this film is actress Isabel Jeans, who would become an early Hitchcock muse; her sister Ursula would marry Irvine in 1931.  He appered again in another Hitchcock film with Isabel Jeans that same year. Easy Virtue, released in August of 1927, is a more well known Hitchcock silent film (widely available!) based on the Coward play of the same name, Jeans takes the lead, opposite Franklin Dyall, with Irvine again supporting in the role of John Whittaker. By the end of 1928 he had been in five more films when he appeared in an early British sound film The Intruder, a nine minute comedy produced by British Sound Film Productions.  In 1929 (having gone to Germany to work), he appeared in Maurice Tourneur's 2 hour long German production The Ship of Lost Men (Das Schiff der verlorenen Menschen) featuring Fritz Kortner and Marlene Dietrich in the lead roles, it was his last film of the decade, but not his last silent film. Sound films were later coming to the continent than they were to the British Isles; and in 1930, he had a role in the Erich Schönfelder film Fräulein Lausbub, which was released very early into the brand new decade--it was a fully silent film release.  Back in Britain, he had the lead role in the 40 minute full sound comedy Leave It to Me; filmed at Twickenham studios; it was the production of George King Productions, founded by the film's director George King. He would appear in just two more films in his life time, the last of which was the comedy Above Rubies, released in July of 1932.  He accompanied his wife to New York in 1933, where she made her stage debut. The were in the process of returning to England via Bermuda when Irvine developed a fever from some sort of infection that developed into pleurisy that killed him rather quickly. He died in Bermuda on the 28th of April, 1933 at just the age of 31.  Specific details of his burial are currently unknown, but it is known that his remains were returned to England and he is buried somewhere in the greater London area.  His wife Ursula would remarry; she married Welsh actor Roger Livesey and together the two of them share a memorial plaque at The Actor's Church: Saint Paul's Covent Garden.

 

Still from Downhill

 

 

IMDb 

 

Find A Grave entry 

Born Today May 5: Ursula Jeans

1906-1973

Born in what was then "British India" to English parents, actress Ursula Jeans was born on this day in Simla (Shimla)--now the capital of Himachal Pradesh. She was educated in London and was the youngest of three children, all of which went into acting. She was, in fact, the younger sister of actress Isabel Jeans. Like her older sister, she made her stage debut in her middle teens--in her case, the year 1922 as the age of just 16.  She also apparently made her film debut the same year in a minor uncredited role in A Gipsy Cavalier, directed by J. Stuart Blackton during a brief time that he was working in the U.K. It would not be until 1926 that she got her first credited film role (having appeared in another uncredited role in yet another Blackton film in 1923: The Virgin Queen).  She was the star of the short drama Silence made at Oxford University by two film students there (she also appeared in a credited role in another short in 1927 False Colours directed by Miles Mander); while her first credited role in a feature was in The Fake (1927)--a melodrama based on a Frederick Lonsdale play.  She appeared in three more films in the 1920's: Quinney's (1927) directed by Maurice Elvey, The Passing of Mr. Quin (1928) based on an Agatha Christie story, and S.O.S. (1928) based on a Walter Ellis play.  She did not appear in another film until 1931, a comedy called The Love Habit starring Seymour Hicks (who was also one of two screenwriters on the project).  She made her American stage debut in New York in the year 1933, and also made he first appearance in an American film production released that same year in Cavalcade.  She immediately went back to the UK film industry after this, taking three years off from film appearances following the untimely death of her first husband, actor Robin Irvine.  After returning to film acting, she had roles for the rest of her career; though, due to her primary job as a stage actress, her film roles not numerous. In all, she acted in less than 40 films during her long career, with The Battle of the Villa Fiorita (1965) being her last feature. Having made her television series debut in 1956, her last acting role came on the series The Root of All Evil? in the 1968 episode Money For Change.  She then retired, dying at the age of 66 on the 21st of April after battling cancer for about a year and half.  Her second husband was Welsh born actor (with whom she sometimes shared the stage) Roger Livesey. For their shared contribution to acting, they also share a memorial plaque at "The Actor's Church" St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden (at least one source say that their remains, possibly ashes?, were interred in the churchyard there).  

[Source: Find A Grave]

IMDb 

Born Today September 16: Isabel Jeans

1891-1985

A giant of the London stage, Jeans was an early Hitchcock muse.  She was born in London and passed away there almost 94 years later on the 4 of September 1985 at 93.  She had planned to become a singer, but instead wound up on the stage at the age of 15 in 1908, by 1915 she had made it to Broadway States side; but soon returned to London.  Her first film appearance came in 1917, and she went on to make several films in the 1920's; at least one The Rat (1925) based on the play that she had a part in the preceding year at The Prince of Wales Theater in London.  In all she appeared in three Alfred Hitchcock films, two of the them silent, the other being the 1941 Suspicion starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine.  Her first marriage was to Claude Rains in 1913 which only lasted two years.  She remarried to a well known British Barrister, whom she remained married to until his death in the 1960's.  As couple they were famous for several couples activities, including being extremely good at poker.

In Hitchcock's Easy Virtue

Her Early Film Work:

The Profligate (1917)

Tilly Of Bloomsbury (1921) (based on a play)

Romance and Reality (1921) (short)

The Rat (1925) (screenplay based on the stage production she starred the year before)

Windsor Castle (1926) (short, part of a haunted castles of England series, this was the third one)

The Triumph Of The Rat (1926) (sequel to The Rat)

Downhill (1927) AKA When Boys Leave Home (Hitchcock directed, available for free streaming over at Internet Archive)

Further Adventures Of A Flag Officer (1927)

Easy Virtue (1928) (Hitchcock directed, based on a Noel Coward play, her highest profile film appearance to date.)

The Return Of The Rat (1929) (second sequel of The Rat, had a synchronized music score, sound by British Acoustic.)

Power Over Men (1929)