Roddy McDowall: Difference between revisions

 

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McDowall made his lone effort as a director with ”[[The Ballad of Tam Lin]]” (1970).<ref>{{cite news|author=Reed, R.|date=28 November 1971|title=Roddy McDowall: Survival of the fittest|work=Chicago Tribune|id={{ProQuest|169150031}}}}</ref> As an actor, he was in ”[[Pretty Maids All in a Row]]” (1971), ”[[Escape from the Planet of the Apes]]” (1971), and Disney’s ”[[Bedknobs and Broomsticks]]” (1971). In addition to his television work, most significantly in ”[[Columbo]]”, he made his third ”Apes” film as Caesar, son of his earlier character, Cornelius, in 1972’s ”[[Conquest of the Planet of the Apes]]”. He took supporting roles in ”[[The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean]]” (1972) and ”[[The Poseidon Adventure (1972 film)|The Poseidon Adventure]]” (1972)<ref>{{cite news|author=Haber, J.|date=9 December 1973|title=Superfan roddy, everybody’s turn-on|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|157355170}}}}</ref> before his final ”Apes” film, ”[[Battle for the Planet of the Apes]]” (1973). During the short-lived TV spin-off of ”[[Planet of the Apes (TV series)|Planet of the Apes]]” (1974), he made a guest appearance on ”The Carol Burnett Show” in his ”Planet of the Apes” makeup and performed a love duet with Burnett.<ref>[http://pota.goatley.com/burnett.html ”The Carol Burnett Show” with Roddy McDowall], 14 March 2017</ref>

McDowall made his lone effort as a director with ”[[The Ballad of Tam Lin]]” (1970).<ref>{{cite news|author=Reed, R.|date=28 November 1971|title=Roddy McDowall: Survival of the fittest|work=Chicago Tribune|id={{ProQuest|169150031}}}}</ref> As an actor, he was in ”[[Pretty Maids All in a Row]]” (1971), ”[[Escape from the Planet of the Apes]]” (1971), and Disney’s ”[[Bedknobs and Broomsticks]]” (1971). In addition to his television work, most significantly in ”[[Columbo]]”, he made his third ”Apes” film as Caesar, son of his earlier character, Cornelius, in 1972’s ”[[Conquest of the Planet of the Apes]]”. He took supporting roles in ”[[The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean]]” (1972) and ”[[The Poseidon Adventure (1972 film)|The Poseidon Adventure]]” (1972)<ref>{{cite news|author=Haber, J.|date=9 December 1973|title=Superfan roddy, everybody’s turn-on|work=Los Angeles Times|id={{ProQuest|157355170}}}}</ref> before his final ”Apes” film, ”[[Battle for the Planet of the Apes]]” (1973). During the short-lived TV spin-off of ”[[Planet of the Apes (TV series)|Planet of the Apes]]” (1974), he made a guest appearance on ”The Carol Burnett Show” in his ”Planet of the Apes” makeup and performed a love duet with Burnett.<ref>[http://pota.goatley.com/burnett.html ”The Carol Burnett Show” with Roddy McDowall], 14 March 2017</ref>

Asked about his career in a 1975 interview, McDowall said, “I just hope to keep working and in interesting things.”<ref>{{Cite news|title=Movie talk with roddy McDowall|author=D. S.|date=21 August 1975|work=The Christian Science Monitor|id={{ProQuest|511800731}}}}</ref> For the rest of the 1970s, he alternated between features, TV films, and guesting on TV series.

Asked about his career in a 1975 interview, McDowall said, “I just hope to keep working and in interesting things.”<ref>{{Cite news|title=Movie talk with roddy McDowall|author=D. S.|date=21 August 1975|work=The Christian Science Monitor|id={{ProQuest|511800731}}}}</ref> For the rest of the , he alternated between features, TV films, and guesting on TV series.

===Early 1980s===

===Early 1980s===

British actor (1928–1998)

Roddy McDowall
McDowall in 1988
Born	Roderick Andrew McDowall (1928-09-17)17 September 1928
Died	3 October 1998(1998-10-03) (aged 70)
Citizenship	United Kingdom United States (after 1949)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1938–1998
Political party	Democratic

Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall (17 September 1928 – 3 October 1998) was a British-American actor whose career spanned over 270 screen and stage roles across more than 60 years.^[1] He began his career as a child in his native England before starring in How Green Was My Valley (1941), My Friend Flicka (1943), and Lassie Come Home (1943) in America. Unlike many child stars, McDowall evolved into an adult performer, winning a Tony Award for his performance in Jean Anouilh‘s The Fighting Cock. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his performance in Cleopatra (1963) and won the Emmy Award for a 1961 episode of NBC Sunday Showcase.

McDowall served in various positions on the board of governors for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the selection committee for the Kennedy Center Honors, contributing to various charities related to the film industry and film preservation. He was a founding member of the National Film Preservation Board and represented the Screen Actors Guild on that board until his death. He was also active as a photographer and journalist. For his contributions to the film and television industry, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

McDowall was born in Herne Hill, London, the only son of Thomas Andrew McDowall (1896–1978), a merchant seaman, and his Irish wife Winifred (née Corcoran).^[2][3][4] Both of his parents were enthusiastic about the theatre. McDowall and his elder sister, Virginia, were raised in their mother’s Catholic faith. He attended St Joseph’s College, Beulah Hill, Upper Norwood, a Roman Catholic secondary school in London.^[5]

After appearing as a child model as a baby, and winning an acting prize in a school play at age nine, McDowell started appearing in films, including I See Ice (1938) with George Formby and Hey! Hey! USA (1938) with Will Hay.^[6]

McDowall’s mother moved to the United States with McDowell and one of his siblings after the outbreak of World War II. He became a naturalised United States citizen on 9 December 1949^[6] and lived in the United States for the rest of his life.

McDowall served in the U.S. Army Reserves, and after basic training, was assigned to the 67th Armored Infantry Battalion 13th Armored Division of the U.S. Army‘s Organised Reserve Corps headquartered in Los Angeles. Later, he was assigned to the 63rd Infantry Division. McDowall served from 1946 to 1954, spanning from the end of World War II to the end of the Korean War.^[7] He then served in the 77th Infantry Division from 1960 to 1962.^[7]

McDowall’s American film career began with the 1941 thriller Man Hunt, directed by Fritz Lang. It was made by 20th Century Fox, which also produced McDowall’s next film, How Green Was My Valley (1941), on which he and Maureen O’Hara became lifelong friends. The film won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and McDowall’s role as Huw Morgan made him a household name.^[6]

Fox promoted McDowall to top billing for On the Sunny Side (1942), and he was top billed again for an adaptation of My Friend Flicka (1942). Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer borrowed McDowall for the star role in Lassie Come Home (1943) with Elizabeth Taylor, who became another lifelong friend, and kept him for a leading role in The White Cliffs of Dover (1944). In 1944, exhibitors voted McDowall the number-four “Star of Tomorrow”^[8] after which Fox gave McDowall another starring vehicle: Thunderhead – Son of Flicka (1945).

McDowall turned to the theatre, taking the title role of Young Woodley in summer stock in Westport, Connecticut, in July 1946.^[9] In 1947, he played Malcolm in Orson Welles‘s stage production of Macbeth in Salt Lake City, and he played the same role in the actor-director’s film version in 1948.^[6]

McDowall then signed a three-year contract with Monogram Pictures to make two films a year.^[10] He starred in seven films at Monogram, for which he also worked as associate producer, including Kidnapped (1948), an adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson story, wherein he played David Balfour.^[11]

After relocating to New York City, McDowall became a frequent presence in live television drama, appearing in numerous televised plays and anthology series throughout the 1950s. He also had a significant career on Broadway, including a production of Misalliance (1953) that he said “broke the mould” in how he was judged as an actor.^[12] Ira Levin‘s No Time for Sergeants (1955–57) was a major hit, ^[13] followed by a critical success with Compulsion (1957–58) based on the Leopold and Loeb case, after which McDowell won a Tony Award for Peter Brook‘s The Fighting Cock (1960).

McDowall enjoyed another big hit on Broadway with the musical Camelot (1960–63), which starred Julie Andrews and Richard Burton.^[14] He took part in a TV production of The Tempest (1960) alongside Burton and Maurice Evans,^[15] before appearing in his first film in almost a decade, The Subterraneans (1960), followed by Midnight Lace (1960). He was also seen in The Longest Day (1962) prior to his portrayal of Octavian in Cleopatra. He worked in film throughout the decade, notably in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), Inside Daisy Clover (1965), and 5 Card Stud (1968), though his most memorable role was as Cornelius in Planet of the Apes. He went on to appear in three sequels and the TV spin-off.

McDowall continued to work regularly in television, including his Emmy-winning turn in Sunday Showcase and a production of The Power and the Glory (1961) with Laurence Olivier, George C. Scott, and Julie Harris.

McDowall made his lone effort as a director with The Ballad of Tam Lin (1970).^[16] As an actor, he was in Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971), Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971), and Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971). In addition to his television work, most significantly in Columbo, he made his third Apes film as Caesar, son of his earlier character, Cornelius, in 1972’s Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. He took supporting roles in The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972)^[17] before his final Apes film, Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973). During the short-lived TV spin-off of Planet of the Apes (1974), he made a guest appearance on The Carol Burnett Show in his Planet of the Apes makeup and performed a love duet with Burnett.^[18]

Asked about his career in a 1975 interview, McDowall said, “I just hope to keep working and in interesting things.”^[19] For the rest of the decade, he alternated between features, TV films, and guesting on TV series.

McDowall’s TV film /miniseries work in the 1980s included The Martian Chronicles (1980), The Memory of Eva Ryker (1980), The Return of the King (1980) (on which he did voice over work), Tales of the Gold Monkey (1980),The Million Dollar Face (1981), Judgement Day (1981), Twilight Theatre (1982), Mae West (1982), This Girl for Hire (1983), The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood (1984), London and Davis in New York (1984), Hollywood Wives (1985), and Alice in Wonderland (1985).

His TV series included Boomer and Miss 21st Century, Fantasy Island (several times), Faerie Tale Theatre, Tales of the Gold Monkey (a series regular), Small and Frye, Hotel, and George Burns Comedy Week.

McDowall’s features included Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (1981), Evil Under the Sun (1982), Class of 1984 (1984), and the cult-classic horror Fright Night (1985).

McDowall had voice-over roles in Zoo Ship (1985), GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords (1986), and The Wind in the Willows (1987), and TV series including Bridges to Cross (1986) (in which McDowall was a regular), The Wizard, Murder, She Wrote, Matlock, and Nightmare Classics; his TV films included Remo Williams: The Prophecy and Around the World in 80 Days (1989).

In 1987, he had supporting roles in Dead of Winter and Overboard, on which he also served as executive producer. His other features included Doin’ Time on Planet Earth (1988), Fright Night Part 2 (1989), The Big Picture (1989), Cutting Class (1989), and Heroes Stand Alone (1989).

In 1989, he said, “I feel as Henry Fonda did that every job I get may be my last. I’m one of those creatures born to be working. I feel better when I’m working. I don’t like it when I’m not working and I’ve never worked as much as I want to.”^[20]

McDowall’s 1990s work included The Color of Evening (1990), Shakma (1990), Going Under (1990), An Inconvenient Woman (1991), Earth Angel (1991), Deadly Game (1991), The Naked Target (1992), Double Trouble (1992), The New Lassie (1992), Quantum Leap (A Leap for Lisa) (1992), The Evil Inside Me (1993), I Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampaire (1993 audio book), Dream On, Heads (1994), Hart to Hart: Home Is Where the Hart Is (1994), Mirror, Mirror 2: Raven Dance (1994), Burke’s Law, Angel 4: Undercover (1994), The Alien Within (1995), The Grass Harp (1995), Last Summer in the Hamptons (1995), Bullet Hearts (1996), Star Hunter (1996), It’s My Party (1996), Tracey Takes On…, Dead Man’s Island, Remember WENN, Unlikely Angel (1996), The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli & Baloo (1997), Something to Believe In (1998), and Loss of Faith (1998).

He voiced the Mad Hatter in the DC Animated Universe. He also did voice work for The Pirates of Dark Water (1991–92), Timmy’s Gift: A Precious Moments Christmas (1992), Camp Candy, The Legend of Prince Valiant (1992), Darkwing Duck (1992), 2 Stupid Dogs, Swat Kats: The Radical Squadron, Red Planet, The Tick, Galaxy Beat, Gargoyles, Duckman, Pinky and the Brain, A Bug’s Life, and Godzilla: The Series.

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1993, when he was surprised by Michael Aspel at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood.^{[citation needed]}

In 1997, McDowall hosted the MGM Musicals Tribute at Carnegie Hall.

McDowall served for several years in various capacities on the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organisation that presents the Academy Awards (Oscars), and on the selection committee for the Kennedy Center Awards. He was chairman of the Actors’ Branch for five terms. He was elected president of the Academy Foundation in 1998, the year that he died. He worked to support the Motion Pictures Retirement Home, where a rose garden named in his honour was officially dedicated on 9 October 2001. It remains part of the campus.^[21]

McDowall received recognition as a photographer, working with Look, Vogue, Collier’s, and Life. His work includes a cover story on Mae West for Life and the cover of the 1964 Barbra Streisand album, The Third Album. He took the photograph when Streisand performed on The Judy Garland Show in October 1963.

He published five books of photographs, each featuring photos and profile interviews of his celebrity friends interviewing each other, such as Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, Judy Holliday, Maureen O’Hara, Katharine Hepburn, Lauren Bacall, and others. It started with Double Exposure in 1968.^[22][23]

In 1974, the FBI raided McDowall’s home and seized his collection of films and television series in the course of an investigation into film piracy and copyright infringement. His collection consisted of 160 16 mm prints and more than 1,000 video cassettes, at a time before the era of commercial videotapes, when no legal aftermarket existed for films. McDowall had purchased Errol Flynn‘s home cinema films and transferred them all to tape for longer-lasting archival storage. No charges were filed.^[24]

McDowall never married nor had children. In Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars (2012) by Scotty Bowers, a famous Hollywood procurer, Bowers named McDowall as one of his homosexual clients.^[25]

McDowall was in a relationship with Montgomery Clift for several years in the early 1950s.^[26][27] McDowall was introduced to Clift by Elizabeth Taylor.^[28] During the two-and-a-half years that Clift stayed away from films, McDowall’s career was nonexistent.^[29][30] He devoted himself entirely to Clift and moved from Los Angeles to New York to be closer to his idol.^[31] McDowall reportedly attempted suicide after their break-up.^[32] Nevertheless, he showed no bitterness and remained one of Clift’s loyal friends.^[33] McDowall starred with Clift in his final picture, The Defector. Clift later stated that he could never have finished the film without McDowall’s moral support.^[34]

In April 1998, McDowall was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He died of the disease at his home in Studio City, California, on 3 October 1998, aged 70.^[35] His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered into the Pacific Ocean on 7 October 1998, off Los Angeles County.^[36] Dennis Osborne, a screenwriter, cared for McDowall in his final months, and was quoted as saying, “It was very peaceful. It was just as he wanted it. It was exactly the way he planned.”^[37]

• Best, Marc. Those Endearing Young Charms: Child Performers of the Screen (South Brunswick and New York: Barnes & Co., 1971), pp. 176–181.
• Dye, David. Child and Youth Actors: Filmography of Their Entire Careers, 1914–1985. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co., 1988, pp. 140–144.
• Holmstrom, John. The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995, Norwich, Michael Russell, 1996, pp. 158–159.

• Roddy McDowall at IMDb
• Roddy McDowall at the Internet Broadway Database
• Roddy McDowall at the TCM Movie Database
• Roddy McDowall discography at Discogs
• xmoppet.org – tribute site with career and biographical information, image gallery, sound clips, links, articles, US TV guide, and a fan club with mailing list
• Documents from the 1974 FBI Raid
• The Roddy McDowall Collection, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University
• Image of Roddy McDowall, Julie Andrews and Greer Garson at the premiere of “The Greatest Story Ever Told” in Los Angeles, California, 1965. Los Angeles Times Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.