Born Today June 13: Basil Rathbone

1892-1967

British cinema sensation Philip St. John Basil Rathbone was born on this date in Johannesburg, South Africa.  He was born to British parents: his mother a violinist and his father a mining engineer--a member of the Liverpool Rathbone family.  When he was just three years old, the family was forced to flee the country for Great Britain because his father had been accused his father Edgar was accused by the Boers of being a spy. In England, Rathbone attended Repton school, which was located in Derbyshire from the year 1906 to 1910.  Though, despite his father's wishes that he take up a traditional career--and he did work for a time in the insurance industry--he was too enamored of the stage to keep to that plan long.  He made his stage debut in July of 1911 in Shakespeare's The Taming Of The Shrew.  The production was undertaken by the company of his cousin Frank Benson.  The company of contracted to tour the U.S. performing various works by Shakespeare in 1912 and Basil Rathbone went with them.  Upon his return to Britain, he acted in both the Savoy and the Shaftesbury Theater, again Shakespeare plays.  After this he again toured with Benson's company, this time in the U.K.  At the outbreak of World War I, he was called up as a private to serve in London Scottish Regiment of the Army in 1915.  In 1916, after completing basic training, he received a commission with ranking of lieutenant.  He served as an intelligence officer, not at first seeing much action, but after his younger brother was killed in action, he undertook very dangerous and delicate recon excursions to map enemy positions.  He eventually attained the ranking of Captain.  He returned to the stage in 1919 in Straford-upon-Avon and then at the Queen's Theater in London.  By 1920, he was back at the Savoy.  Rathbone made his first film appearance in 1921 with Innocent, produced by the UK company Stoll.  He quickly followed that with another Stoll film The Fruitful Vine (1921).  He made two more silent films in England (The School For Scandal, The Loves of Mary, Queen of Scots--both in 1923), before leaving for the United States.  By October of 1923, he was appearing on the stage in New York; almost immediately he became a Broadway sensation.  By 1925, he was once again touring in the U.S.  He appeared in his first film states-side in 1924 with Trouping With Ellen.  He made two more silent films in U.S. (The Masked Bride (1925) & The Great Deception (1926)) before making his first sound film in 1929--The Last Of Mrs. Cheyney, a Norma Shearer dramady.  Though, he started to become more recognizable in films during the 1930's, playing in a variety of genres from swashbucklers to horror, he also continued his stage career as well.  He returned to the UK in the early 1930's for this express purpose.  What he is by far and away remembered most for is his role in a series of Sherlock Holmes films the first of which was The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1939, with Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson.  He also did some voice over work during his lifetime, famously voicing the Policeman and providing the narration in the "Mr. Toad" section of The Adventures Of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949).  Rathbone made his television debut that same year on the series The Ford Theatre Hour in the episode "On Borrowed Time".  From then, he was seen frequently in guest appearances on television throughout the 1950's.  The last film that he appeared in during his lifetime was the horror/comedy spoof Hillbillys In A Haunted House, released in May 1967.  The last film that he appeared in was released after his death; Autopsia de un fantasma, a Mexican horror/comedy monster film was released in November 1968.  Rathbone died of a sudden heart attack at the age of 75 on the 21st of July 1967 in New York.  He is interred in a crypt in the Shrine of Memories mausoleum at Ferncliff Cemetery with is located in Hartsdale, New York (Judy Garland was, up until early 2017, interred near by, before being moved to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in CA).  As a point of trivia: Rathbone was a cousin of Major Henry Rathbone, who was present at the shooting of President Abraham Lincoln; Major Rathbone was seriously wounded in the attack in a vain attempt to stop John Wilkes Booth.  Basil Rathbone was twice nominated for an Oscar.  

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Born Today February 4: Nigel Bruce

1895-1953

Well known British character actor famous for his Dr. Watson to Basil Rathbone's Sherlock Holmes, Nigel Bruce was actually born William Nigel Ernie Bruce in Ensenada, in Baja California on the Mexican side of the border, while his parents, Sir William Waller Bruce and his wife Angelica, Lady Bruce, were on holiday there.  His father was 10th Baronet, and after his death, Nigel's older brother, famed author and adventurer, Michael, became Sir Michael Bruce, 11th Baronet.  Throughout his childhood, Nigel was simply known as "Willie," and this was the name that those who knew him personally called him throughout his life. In 1914, he served in World War I; he was deployed in France with the Somerset Light Infantry and the Honourable Artillery Company.  In 1915, he was severely wounded, taking 11 bullets to his left leg (!), in Cambrai.  He spent the rest of the war in a wheelchair.  Sometime around this, he developed an interest in performance.  By 1920, May 12 to be exact, he made his first public performance at the Comedy Theater (now the Harold Pinter Theater), in the West End, as the footman in Why Marry?  In October, he moved to Canada to become a theater manager, and took up the role of "Montague Jordan" in Eliza Comes To Stay; within a year or two, he was back in the UK, touring as the same character in the same play.  He is also said to have taken several roles in the UK silent film industry; but as of now, only one role has him credited.   In 1922, he an early partial color film (2 color process by Prizma Color), as an uncredited extra, the film was Flames of Passion--a pot boiler melodrama.  He is currently not credited with another film appearance, until 1930 in the UK produced crime/mystery The Squeaker.  He moved to Hollywood in 1934.  He would go on to make several milestones in film from there.  For example, in 1935 he was in Becky Sharp, the first full length technicolor film; in 1939, the same year he made his debut as Dr. Watson, he played a rare heavy in The Rains Came, with Tyrone Power and Myrna Loy--this would go on to be the first film to win an Oscar for special effects.  Later on in 1952, a year before his death, he was in Bwana Devil, with Robert Stack and Barbara Britton--this was the first 3-D feature.  He was also in two Alfred Hitchcock films:  Rebecca (1940) and Suspicion (1941).  Bruce died of a heart attack on 8 October 1953; he was cremated and his ashes were stored in Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles.  He was 75 years old.

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Theda At A Costume Party! Happy Halloween Everyone!

This is a photo of Theda Bara with film director hubbie Charles Brabin many years after she quit acting at "fancy dress party," given by Basil Rathbone.  Here is the US, of course, we call it a costume party.  It wasn't held on Halloween however; the event took place on 19 April 1938.  Still great Halloween photo too!  Found on The She Devil live journal--no further information could be found on who took the photo.  Would be really cool if it was Rathbone himself!