James Mason
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| James Mason | |
 Mason as Brutus in the trailer for Julius Caesar |
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| Born | James Neville Mason 15 May 1909 Huddersfield, England |
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| Died | 27 July 1984 (aged 75) Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Years active | 1935 – 1984 |
| Spouse(s) | Pamela Mason (1941–1964) Clarissa Kaye-Mason (1971–1984) |
James Neville Mason (15 May 1909 – 27 July 1984) was a British actor who appeared in both British and American films.
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[edit] Early life
Mason was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, to John and Mabel Mason; his father was a wealthy merchant. Mason had no formal training as an actor and initially embarked upon it for fun. He was educated at Marlborough College, and earned a first in architecture at Peterhouse, Cambridge where he became involved in stock theatre companies in his spare time. After Cambridge he joined the Old Vic theatre in London under the guidance of Tyrone Guthrie and Alexander Korda, who gave Mason a small film role in 1933, but fired him a few days into shooting.
[edit] Career
From 1935 to 1948 he starred in many British quota quickies. A conscientious objector during World War II (something which caused his family to break with him for many years), he became immensely popular for his brooding anti-heroes in the Gainsborough series of melodramas of the 1940s, including The Man in Grey and The Wicked Lady. He also starred with Deborah Kerr and Robert Newton in 1942's Hatter's Castle. It was in the immensely popular The Seventh Veil, which set box office records in postwar Britain, and led to his transatalantic career. In the 1947 film Odd Man Out, he played Johnny, a mortally wounded Irish revolutionary who wanders Dublin in search of help and sanctuary. He made his first Hollywood film, Caught, with director Max Ophuls in 1949.
His roles include Norman Maine in the 1954 version of A Star Is Born (for which he received an Oscar nomination as Best Actor)[1], Brutus in Julius Caesar, General Erwin Rommel in The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel, and in The Desert Rats, Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a small town school teacher driven insane by the misuse of Cortisone in Bigger Than Life, a suave master spy in North by Northwest, a determined explorer in Journey to the Center of the Earth, perverse professor Humbert Humbert in Stanley Kubrick's Lolita, a hired assassin sent to kill Peter O'Toole and thereby prevent him from leading a peasant uprising in Lord Jim, a lecherous old man in Georgy Girl (1966), which earned him an Oscar nomination as best supporting actor, [2] the vampire's servant, Richard Straker, in Salem's Lot, and a surreal pirate-ship captain in Yellowbeard. One of his last roles, that of corrupt lawyer James Concannon in The Verdict, earned him his third and final Oscar nomination; he never won.
Mason was once considered to play James Bond in a 1958 TV adaptation of From Russia with Love, which was ultimately never produced. Despite being in his fifties, he was still under consideration to play Bond in Dr. No before Sean Connery was cast. He was also approached to appear as Bond villain Hugo Drax in Moonraker, but he turned it down despite his renowned tendency to take any job offered him – which led to appearances in films such as The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go, Bloodline and Hunt the Man Down. His final screen-work was the lead role in Doctor Fischer of Geneva (adapted from the Graham Greene novella) as an eccentric, wealthy businessman who enjoys humiliating the Swiss upper class, and Sir Randolph Nettleby in the 1985 film The Shooting Party directed by Alan Bridges and based on a book by Isabel Colegate.
When living in the former home of Buster Keaton, Mason discovered some lost nitrate stock films of the silent comic and arranged for their preservation. In 1980 he lent his voice to the first definitive documentary series of the silent-era, Hollywood produced by Thames Television in the UK. Late in life, he also served as narrator for Unknown Chaplin, another Thames television series on the films of Charlie Chaplin, which was aired in the U.S. on PBS and later issued on home video.[3]
In the late 1970s, Mason became a mentor to up-and-coming actor Sam Neill.
[edit] Personal life
Mason was married twice; the first was to British-American actress Pamela Mason (née Ostrer) in 1941. The couple had one daughter, Portland Mason Schuyler (1948–2004), and one son, Morgan. Portland Mason was named after Portland Hoffa, the wife of the American radio comedian Fred Allen; the Allens and Masons were friends. Morgan Mason is married to Belinda Carlisle, the former lead singer of The Go-Go's.
Mason was a devoted lover of animals, particularly cats. He and Pamela Kellino Mason co-authored the book The Cats in Our Lives, which was published in 1949. James Mason wrote most of the book and illustrated it. In The Cats in Our Lives, he recounted humorous and sometimes touching tales of the cats (as well as a few dogs) he had known and loved.
James and Pamela Mason had an acrimonious divorce in 1964. James later married Australian actress Clarissa Kaye in 1971.
Mason's autobiography, Before I Forget, was published in 1981.
[edit] Death
Mason survived a major heart attack in 1959 and died as a result of another on 27 July 1984 in Lausanne, Switzerland. He was cremated and (after a delay of 16 years) his ashes were buried in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. The remains of Mason's old friend, Charlie Chaplin, are in a tomb a few steps away.
[edit] Legacy
James Mason Court, a road in the Marsh area of his native Huddersfield, is named in his honour.
[edit] References in popular culture
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Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (March 2009) |
- On the DVD audio commentary of British Comedy The Mighty Boosh series two episode, "The Nightmare of Milky Joe", comedians Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt perform an impression of James Mason's voice. In early days of The Mighty Boosh, Rich Fulcher and Noel Fielding performed "dueling Masons" in the Hen and Chickens in Highbury, London. They also joke about Mason's clean-shaven appearance, quipping "You must shave twice a day", (a reference to a line in Lolita, "all the best people shave twice a day") while both doing impressions of him. Another Mighty Boosh joke involves a James Mason song/chant, "all the best men shave twice a day, all the best men shave twice a day... And three times on Sundays!" this features in the 2008/9 live show in which there are also characters who speak in husky voices because they "learnt to speak English from a DVD with James Mason in it."
- In the 1970s, the comedy improvisation teams Second City and Distilled Water both did routines in which incredible shifts in historical circumstance would place James Mason in bizarre situations such as replacing Moe Howard (of the Three Stooges) when the latter was unexpectedly killed after being hit over the head with a board, becoming an early morning DJ on a Chicago Top 40 radio station, working as an auctioneer, being a headliner on All Star Rasslin' in which he threatens and taunts his upcoming opponents on TV close ups, and running a mail order course in which people could learn to act and sound like James Mason.
- In the Jack McKinney Robotech novelizations (Book 6: Doomsday), when Zentraedi commander Khyron is seen for the first time by humans, one of Captain Gloval's staff noted that "He talks like that sixties actor, James Mason." This is very evident in the animated series on which the novels are based where his voice was performed by actor Greg Snegoff.
- During his stand-up comedy routines, Eddie Izzard frequently impersonates James Mason, using his voice to portray both famous figures such as President John Kennedy and (more notably and consistently) the voice of God.
- On Saturday Night Live, Bill Hader has impersonated Mason on a few occasions. In the sketch "The Vincent Price Show", Hader played Vincent Price and his guest was Mason (as played by guest host Jon Hamm) in character as Humbert Humbert from Lolita.
- In the British comedy program Fonejacker, Mason's likeness is used for the automated service provider.
[edit] Filmography
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: James Mason |
- James Mason at Find a Grave
- James Mason at the Internet Movie Database
- James Mason at the TCM Movie Database
- James Mason at the Internet Broadway Database
- James Mason at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
- Greta Garbo & James Mason
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