Henry Daniell
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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."
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 15.886 |
Birthday | 1894-03-04 |
Place of Birth | Barnes, Surrey, UK |
Also Known As | Henry Daniel, 亨利·丹尼尔, Charles Henry Pywell Daniell, |
1940
The Great Dictator
8.32/3270
Dictator Adenoid Hynkel tries to expand his empire while a poor Jewish barber tries to avoid persecution from Hynkel's regime.
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The Great Dictator
1940
The Philadelphia Story
7.627/832
When a rich woman's ex-husband and a tabloid-type reporter turn up just before her planned remarriage, she begins to learn the truth about herself.
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The Philadelphia Story
1961
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
5.7/121
The crew of an atomic submarine battle to save the world from global destruction.
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Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
1949
Siren of Atlantis
5.2/12
Two Foreign Legion soldiers, Jean (Dennis O'Keefe) and Andre (Jean Pierre Aumont), accidentally discover the famed lost continent of Atlantis. Bewitch...
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Siren of Atlantis
1945
The Body Snatcher
6.957/176
Edinburgh, 1831. Among those who undertake the illegal trade of grave robbery is Gray, ostensibly a cab driver. Formerly a medical student convicted o...
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The Body Snatcher
1961
The Comancheros
6.734/184
Texas Ranger Jake Cutter arrests gambler Paul Regret, but soon finds himself teamed with his prisoner in an undercover effort to defeat a band of rene...
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The Comancheros
1943
Jane Eyre
6.9/126
After a harsh childhood, orphan Jane Eyre is hired by Edward Rochester, the brooding lord of a mysterious manor house to care for his young daughter.
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Jane Eyre
1957
The Sun Also Rises
5.9/32
A group of disillusioned American expatriate writers live a dissolute, hedonistic lifestyle in 1920's France and Spain.
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The Sun Also Rises
1940
The Sea Hawk
7.143/122
Dashing pirate Geoffrey Thorpe plunders Spanish ships for Queen Elizabeth I and falls in love with Dona Maria, a beautiful Spanish royal he captures.
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The Sea Hawk
1942
Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror
6.483/88
England, at the start of World War Two. Mysterious wireless broadcasts, apparently from Nazi Germany are heard over the BBC. They warn of acts of terr...
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Sherlock Holmes and the Voice of Terror
1941
A Woman's Face
7/63
A female blackmailer with a disfiguring facial scar meets a plastic surgeon who offers her the possibility of looking like a normal woman.
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A Woman's Face
1945
The Woman in Green
6.395/119
Sherlock Holmes investigates when young women around London turn up murdered, each with a finger severed. Scotland Yard suspects a madman, but Holmes...
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The Woman in Green
1956
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
6.804/48
Tom Rath is a suburban father and husband haunted by his memories of World War II, including a wartime romance with Italian village girl Maria, which...
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The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit
1948
Wake of the Red Witch
5.6/38
Captain Ralls fights Dutch shipping magnate Mayrant Sidneye for the woman he loves, Angelique Desaix, and for a fortune in gold aboard the Red Witch.
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Wake of the Red Witch
1942
Castle in the Desert
6.833/15
Charlie Chan, with son Jimmy on a week's pass from the Army, takes up a request for help at a castle-home, miles from anywhere in the American desert...
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Castle in the Desert
1956
Lust for Life
7.1/184
An intense and imaginative artist, revered Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh possesses undeniable talent, but he is plagued by mental problems and frustr...
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Lust for Life
1957
Witness for the Prosecution
8.215/1344
When Leonard Vole is arrested for the sensational murder of a rich, middle-aged widow, the famous Sir Wilfrid Robarts agrees to appear on his behalf....
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Witness for the Prosecution
1957
Les Girls
6.36/50
After writing a tell-all book about her days in the dance troupe "Barry Nichols and Les Girls", Sybil Wren is sued for libeling her fellow dancer Ange...
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Les Girls
1957
The Story of Mankind
4.476/21
The devil and the spirit of mankind argue as to whether or not humanity is ultimately good or evil.
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The Story of Mankind
1940
All This, and Heaven Too
7.3/45
When lovely and virtuous governess Henriette Deluzy comes to educate the children of the debonair Duc de Praslin, a royal subject to King Louis-Philip...
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All This, and Heaven Too
1938
Marie Antoinette
6.22/25
The young Austrian princess Marie Antoinette is arranged to marry Louis XVI, future king of France, in a politically advantageous marriage for the riv...
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Marie Antoinette
1937
Madame X
6.2/5
An alcoholic woman was charged and tried for murder and a young defense attorney, unaware that she is his mother, takes the assignment to defend her i...
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Madame X
1937
The Firefly
6.4/5
Nina Maria Azara is the beautiful and alluring singing spy for Spain during the Napoleonic Wars. Her mission is to seduce French officers, in order fo...
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The Firefly
1936
Camille
7/122
Life in 1847 Paris is as spirited as champagne and as unforgiving as the gray morning after. In gambling dens and lavish soirees, men of means exert t...
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Camille
1943
Sherlock Holmes in Washington
6.722/63
In World War II, a British secret agent carrying a vitally important document is kidnapped en route to Washington. The British government calls on She...
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Sherlock Holmes in Washington
1958
From the Earth to the Moon
5.2/27
Set just after the American civil war, businessman and inventor Victor Barbicane invents a new source of power called Power X. He plans to use it to p...
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From the Earth to the Moon
1938
Holiday
7.3/244
Johnny Case, a freethinking financier, has finally found the girl of his dreams — Julia Seton, the spoiled daughter of a socially prominent millionair...
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Holiday
1950
Buccaneer's Girl
5.4/12
A New Orleans performer loves a pirate who robs only from the shipowner who ruined his father.
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Buccaneer's Girl
1939
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
6.2/79
This period drama frames the tumultuous affair between Queen Elizabeth I and the man who would be King of England.
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The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
1962
The Notorious Landlady
6.745/49
An American junior diplomat in London rents a house from, and falls in love with, a woman suspected of murder.
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The Notorious Landlady
1961
Madison Avenue
6/3
An adman and an adwoman put a dangerous milk tycoon in line for the White House.
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Madison Avenue
1959
The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake
5.8/23
Jonathan Drake, while attending his brother's funeral, is shocked to find the head of the deceased is missing. When his brother's skull shows up later...
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The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake
1941
The Feminine Touch
5.1/7
A college professor who believes there's no place for jealousy in modern marriage, John Hathaway (Don Ameche) moves with his wife, Julie (Rosalind Rus...
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The Feminine Touch
1947
The Exile
6.1/8
In 17th-century England, Charles II, the rightful heir to the kingdom, is driven from his country by militants working for rogue leader Oliver Cromwel...
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The Exile
1937
Under Cover of Night
5.7/3
A detective (Edmund Lowe) trails a professor (Henry Daniell) who stole credit for his wife's research, then killed her.
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Under Cover of Night
1947
Song of Love
6.7/8
Composer Robert Schumann struggles to compose his symphonies while his loving wife Clara offers her support. Also helping the Schumanns is their lifel...
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Song of Love
1949
The Secret Of St. Ives
6/1
A French soldier in the Napoleonic Wars plots his escape after he's captured and imprisoned in a castle fortress in Edinburgh, Scotland. Director Phil...
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The Secret Of St. Ives
1962
The Chapman Report
5.3/15
A research psychologist gets involved in the personal lives of four women.
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The Chapman Report
1957
Mister Cory
5.5/7
An opportunistic young man from the slums gambles his way to wealth, power and high society.
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Mister Cory
1945
Hotel Berlin
6.1/12
An assortment of diverse characters gather at the Hotel Berlin in World War II Germany as the Third Reich falls.
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Hotel Berlin
1937
The Thirteenth Chair
5.8/6
A phony psychic tries to solve a murder that took place during her seance.
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The Thirteenth Chair
1939
We Are Not Alone
6.2/3
A British doctor and his son's Austrian governess have an affair and are accused of killing his wife.
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We Are Not Alone
1956
Diane
5.7/8
Asked by Francis I to tutor his son, Diane de Poitiers becomes the future King Henry II's mistress in 1500s France.
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Diane
1936
The Unguarded Hour
6.2/4
A blackmailer tries to stop a woman from revealing evidence that could save a condemned man.
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The Unguarded Hour
1942
Four Jacks and a Jill
6/3
Karanina "Nina" Novak, is befriended by Nifty, the leader of a four-piece orchestra, and in return, secures an engagement for them at the Little Arega...
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Four Jacks and a Jill
1943
Watch on the Rhine
6.833/39
On the eve of World War II, the German Kurt Müller, his American-born wife Sara, and their three children, having lived in Europe for years, visit Sar...
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Watch on the Rhine
1954
The Egyptian
6.3/82
In eighteenth-dynasty Egypt, Sinuhe, a poor orphan, becomes a brilliant physician and with his friend Horemheb is appointed to the service of the new...
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The Egyptian
1941
Dressed to Kill
6.3/20
A detective's wedding is postponed when gunshots are heard nearby.
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Dressed to Kill
1930
The Last of the Lone Wolf
6/1
In this entry in the Lone Wolf series, the first to have a soundtrack, the jealousies of the King and the coquettish Queen are chronicled. When His Ma...
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The Last of the Lone Wolf
1942
The Great Impersonation
5.8/3
An Englishman kills a German look-alike and poses as a Nazi spy in London.
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The Great Impersonation
1945
Captain Kidd
6/28
Cutthroat pirate William Kidd captures Admiral Blayne's treasure ship and hides the bounty in a cave. Three years later, Kidd, posing as a respectable...
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Captain Kidd
1943
Mission to Moscow
5.2/17
Ambassador Joseph Davies is sent by FDR to Russia to learn about the Soviet system and returns to America as an advocate of Stalinism.
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Mission to Moscow
1942
Nightmare
4/1
An ex-gambler helps a beautiful widow, and becomes involved with a murder, secret agents, and saboteurs.
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Nightmare
1942
Reunion in France
6.6/17
Frenchwoman Michele de la Becque, an opponent of the Nazis in German-occupied Paris, hides a downed American flyer, Pat Talbot, and attempts to get hi...
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Reunion in France
1946
The Bandit of Sherwood Forest
4.9/9
Robin Hood's swashbuckling son comes to the rescue when England's boy-king is captured by the evil, power-hungry William of Pembroke.
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The Bandit of Sherwood Forest
1962
Five Weeks in a Balloon
5.481/27
Professor Fergusson plans to make aviation history by making his way across Africa by balloon. He plans to claim uncharted territories in West Africa...
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Five Weeks in a Balloon
1955
The Prodigal
4/6
A wealthy young Hebrew traveling in Damascus renounces his faith after he is seduced by an alluring pagan priestess and cheated of his fortune by the...
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The Prodigal
1964
My Fair Lady
7.5/1262
A snobbish phonetics professor agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl and make her presentable in high society.
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My Fair Lady
1962
Mutiny on the Bounty
7/292
The Bounty leaves Portsmouth in 1787. Its destination: to sail to Tahiti and load bread-fruit. Captain Bligh will do anything to get there as fast as...
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Mutiny on the Bounty
1929
Jealousy
0/0
Yvonne, proprietor of a Paris gown shop, marries Pierre, a poor artist, concealing from him an affair she had with Rigaud, an elderly boulevardier who...
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Jealousy
1929
The Awful Truth
0/0
Story of a wealthy couple whose individual infidelities lead inexorably to the divorce court.
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The Awful Truth
1945
The Suspect
6.7/60
Genial shopkeeper Philip has to endure the constant nagging of a shrewish wife while he secretly yearns for a pretty young stenographer. When the henp...
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The Suspect
2007
Hitler: The Comedy Years
5/1
A documentary about the portrayal of Adolf Hitler in popular culture.
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Hitler: The Comedy Years
1946
Angel Street
0/0
NBC adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's play Gaslight
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