Charles Laughton
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Charles Laughton (1 July 1899 – 15 December 1962) was an English-American stage and film actor, director, producer and screenwriter. Laughton was trained in London at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and first appeared professionally on the stage in 1926. In 1927, he was cast in a play with his future wife Elsa Lanchester, with whom he lived and worked until his death. He played a wide range of classical and modern parts, making an impact in Shakespeare at the Old Vic. His film career took him to Broadway and then Hollywood, but he also collaborated with Alexander Korda on notable British films of the era, including The Private Life of Henry VIII, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the title character. He portrayed everything from monsters and misfits to kings. Among Laughton's biggest film hits were The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Mutiny on the Bounty, Ruggles of Red Gap, Jamaica Inn, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Big Clock. In his later career, he took up stage directing, notably in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, and George Bernard Shaw's Don Juan in Hell, in which he also starred. He directed one film, the thriller The Night of the Hunter. Daniel Day-Lewis cited Laughton as one of his inspirations, saying: "He was probably the greatest film actor who came from that period of time. He had something quite remarkable. His generosity as an actor, he fed himself into that work. As an actor, you cannot take your eyes off him."
Known for
Credits
Spartacus (1960)
as Sempronius Gracchus
Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
as Sir Wilfrid
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
as The Hunchback Quasimodo
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
as Captaine Bligh
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)
as (in "The Bribe") (archive footage)
Blue Bottles (1928)
as Burglar
Under Ten Flags (1960)
as Admiral Russell
Charmed Lives: A Family Romance (2028)
as Self (archive footage)
O. Henry's Full House (1952)
as Soapy (segment "The Cop and the Anthem")
The Sign of the Cross (1932)
as Emperor Nero Claudius Caesar
The Old Dark House (1932)
as Sir William Porterhouse
Jamaica Inn (1939)
as Sir Humphrey Pengallan
The Tonic (1928)
as Father of the Family
The Paradine Case (1947)
as Judge Lord Thomas Horfield
Advise & Consent (1962)
as Senator Seabright Cooley
Hobson's Choice (1954)
as Henry Horatio Hobson
I, Claudius (1937)
as Claudius
Island of Lost Souls (1932)
as Dr. Moreau
Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau (2014)
as Self (archive footage)
This Land Is Mine (1943)
as Albert Lory
The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949)
as Inspector Jules Maigret
The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)
as Henry VIII
Abbott and Costello Meet Captain Kidd (1952)
as Capt. William Kidd
The Big Clock (1948)
as Earl Janoth
Vessel of Wrath (1938)
as Ginger Ted
Captain Kidd (1945)
as Captain Kidd
St. Martin's Lane (1938)
as Charles Staggers
Salome (1953)
as King Herod
On Our Merry Way (1948)
as Reverend
Forever and a Day (1943)
as Bellamy
The Suspect (1945)
as Philip Marshall
In the Presence of Mine Enemies (1960)
as Rabbi Adam Heller
The Bribe (1949)
as J.J. Bealer
Young Bess (1953)
as King Henry VIII
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage (1983)
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
Arch of Triumph (1948)
as Ivon Haake
The Canterville Ghost (1944)
as Sir Simon de Canterville / The Ghost
The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934)
as Edward Moulton-Barrett
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards (1940)
as Self
Les Misérables (1935)
as Inspector Emile Javert
Monster by Moonlight! The Immortal Saga of 'The Wolf Man' (1999)
as Self (archive footage)
Tales of Manhattan (1942)
as Charles Smith
Rembrandt (1936)
as Rembrandt van Rijn
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year (2009)
as Self (archive footage)
The Horror Show (1979)
as (archive footage)
Preminger: Anatomy of a Filmmaker (1991)
as actor 'Advise and 'Consent' (archive footage) (uncredited)
Stand by for Action (1942)
as Rear Admiral Stephen Thomas
If I Had a Million (1932)
as Phineas V. Lambert
Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)
as Marmaduke Ruggles
Piccadilly (1929)
as A Continental Visitor
Devil and the Deep (1932)
as Cmdr. Charles Sturm
Hollywood: The Dream Factory (1972)
as Self (archive footage)
It Started with Eve (1941)
as Jonathan Reynolds
Hollywood Scandals and Tragedies (1988)
as (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Tuttles of Tahiti (1942)
as Jonas
The Strange Door (1951)
as Sire Alain de Maletroit
They Knew What They Wanted (1940)
as Tony Patucci
The Blue Veil (1951)
as Fred K. Begley
Oops, Those Hollywood Bloopers! (1982)
as Self (archive footage)
The Girl from Manhattan (1948)
as The Bishop
Payment Deferred (1932)
as William Marble
The Epic That Never Was (1969)
as Tiberius Claudius (archive footage)
Because of Him (1946)
as John Sheridan
Abbott and Costello Meet Jerry Seinfeld (1994)
as Self (archive footage)
Monster Madness: The Golden Age of the Horror Film (2014)
as Dr. Moreau (archive footage)
The Clerk (1933)
as Phineas V. Lambert
Comets (1930)
as Himself
Charles Laughton Directs "The Night of The Hunter" (2002)
as Self (archive footage)
The Art Director (1949)
as Self - from 'The Big Clock' (archive footage) (uncredited)
The Man from Down Under (1943)
as Jocko Wilson
Down River (1931)
as Captain Grossman
Daydreams (1928)
as Lecherous Boarder / Ram Das in Dream Sequence
Leben des Galilei (1947)
as Galileo Galilei
White Woman (1933)
as Horace H. Prin
Wolves (1930)
as Captain Job