From Silent Film Idol to Superman

Based in Putney in south-west London, Jonathan Croall is a journalist, theatre and film historian, and the author of 25 books. He was formerly an editor at Penguin and Oxford University Press, features editor of the Times Educational Supplement, editor of the National Theatre's magazine StageWrite and program editor at the Old Vic theatre in London.

“Jonathan Croall [John Stuart ‘s son] is an outstanding biographer of actors… He has a way of bringing the protagonists of these books to life, clarifying their talents, their progress over the decades, and the changes that those decades can bring. He has a remarkable gift for establishing, or recreating, the media context in which these stars operate, and how this context operates in the world at large. … His wonderfully readable and extensively illustrated book grows from an amazing amount of research, involving masses of documents and letters left by his father, all of which have enabled him to create a moving study of the man as well as of the actor. A major bonus is the insight it offers into the wider British film culture, that bred the ‘silent film idol’ who stayed around for nearly six productive decades.”—Brian McFarlane, editor of The Encyclopedia of British Film

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsPrefaceIntroductionPart One: Silent Idol1. Childhood, School, War2. From Stage to Screen 3. An Emerging Star 4. Alfred Hitchcock and Maurice Elvey 5. Britain or Hollywood? 6. Fame and a Fan Club Part Two: The Background7. Working Lives 8. Writers, Screenplays, Titles 9. The Film Press and the Film Society 10. The Publicity Machine 11. The Coming of Sound 12. Winners and Losers Part Three: Into the Talkies13. Kitty 14. From Dupont’s Atlantic to Pabst’s L’Atlantide 15. With Gracie Fields and Conrad Veidt 16. Stage Matters 17. Fatherhood and War 18. Propaganda and EscapismPart Four: Character Actor19. On the Small Screen 20. Back to the Theater 21. Leading Roles and Cameos 22. From Quatermass to Superman 23. The Final Years Epilogue Film, Documentary, Theater, Television, and Miscellaneous AppearancesBibliography Index