Miles Mander

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Miles Mander
Born Lionel Henry Mander
May 14, 1888(1888-05-14)
Wolverhampton, England
Died February 8, 1946(1946-02-08) (aged 57)
Los Angeles, California USA
Resting place Ocean View Burial Park, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Years active 1920–46
Spouse Princess Prativa Devi, dau. of Maharajah Nripendra Narayan of Cooch Behar
Kathren ('Bunty') French

Miles Mander (May 14, 1888 – February 8, 1946), born Lionel Henry Mander (and sometimes credited as Luther Miles), was a well-known and versatile English character actor of the early Hollywood cinema, also a film director and producer, and a playwright and novelist.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Miles Mander was the second son of Theodore Mander, builder of Wightwick Manor, of the prominent Mander family, industrialists and public servants of Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, in the Midlands of England. He was the younger brother of Sir Geoffrey Mander, the Member of Parliament. He was educated at Harrow School, Middlesex (The Grove House 1901- Easter 1903), Loretto School, East of Edinburgh and McGill University, Montreal. But he soon broke away from the predictable mould of business and philanthropy. He was an early aviator, a captain in the Royal Army Service Corps in World War I. He spent his 20s in New Zealand farming sheep, with his uncle, Martin Mander.

[edit] Film career

He achieved success as Sir Hugh Boycott in The First Born (1928) which he directed and acted in, and which was based on his own novel and play. He is better remembered for his character portrayals of oily villains, many of them English gentlemen or upper-crust cads - such as Cardinal Richelieu in the musical film The Three Musketeers (1939), a spoof in which the Ritz Brothers played lackeys who substituted for the real Musketeers. In his Hollywood debut, he had portrayed King Louis XIII in the much more serious 1935 version of that same Alexandre Dumas, père classic. Other famous film credits included Wuthering Heights with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, in which he played Mr. Lockwood, the new tenant at the Grange, who is told the story of Cathy and Heathcliff. In the 1933 English version of G.W. Pabst's Adventures of Don Quixote, he played the Duke who invites Don Quixote and Sancho Panza to his castle, and in the original To Be or Not to Be, he was one of the two British officers to whom Robert Stack first reveals his suspicions about the treacherous Professor Siletsky (Stanley Ridges).

[edit] Personal life

His first wife was an Indian princess, Princess Prativa Devi, the daughter of the Maharajah Nripendra Narayan of Cooch Behar. His brother Alan married her sister, Princess Sudhira. His second wife was Kathren ('Bunty') French, of Sydney, Australia, with whom he had a son, Theodore. He wrote a book of memoirs and advice to him, To My Son—in Confidence (1934). He died suddenly of a heart attack at the Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles, aged 57.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] As actor

[edit] As director

  • The Whistler (1926) short made in DeForest Phonofilm
  • The Sheik of Araby (1926) short made in Phonofilm
  • Knee Deep in Daisies (1926) short made in Phonofilm
  • The Fair Maid of Perth (1926) short made in Phonofilm
  • False Colours (1927) short made in Phonofilm
  • The Sentence of Death (1927) U. S. title His Great Moment, short made in Phonofilm
  • Packing Up (1927) short made in Phonofilm
  • As We Lie (1927) short film made in Phonofilm
  • The First Born (1928)
  • The Woman Between (1931) U.S. title The Woman Decides
  • Fascination (1931)
  • Youthful Folly (1934)
  • The Morals of Marcus (1935)
  • The Flying Doctor (1936)

[edit] As writer

  • Lovers in Araby (1924)
  • As We Lie (1927) (story)
  • The First Born (1928)
  • The Woman Between (1931) (known in the US as The Woman Decides)
  • L'Atlantide (1932) directed by G. W. Pabst -- (English version known in the UK as The Mistress of Atlantis (1932) and in the US as The Lost Atlantis)
  • The Lodger (1932) aka The Phantom Fiend (USA)
  • The Morals of Marcus (1935)
  • The Flying Doctor (1936)

[edit] As producer

  • The Man Without Desire (1923)
  • Knee Deep in Daisies (1926)
  • The First Born (1928)
  • The Flying Doctor (1936)
  • Watchtower Over Tomorrow (1945) (uncredited)

[edit] Sources

  • Miles Mander, To my Son—in Confidence, Faber, 1934
  • Miles Mander, Gentleman by Birth, 1933
  • Sir Geoffrey Le Mesurier Mander (ed), The History of Mander Brothers, Wolverhampton. 1955
  • C. Nicholas Mander, Varnished Leaves: a biography of the Mander Family of Wolverhampton, 1750-1950, Owlpen Press, 2004
  • Patricia Pegg, A Very Private Heritage: the private papers of Samuel Theodore Mander, 1853-1900, Malvern, 1996

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

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The films of Miles Mander
1920s
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