Colman Family History & Genealogy

Ronald Colman Born Ronald Charles Colman 9 February 1891 Richmond, Surrey, England, UK Died 19 May 1958 (aged 67) Santa Barbara, California, US Cause of death Emphysema Occupation Actor Years active 1914–57 Spouse(s) Thelma Raye (m. 1920; div. 1934) Benita Hume (m. 1938; his death 1958) Colman was an English-born actor, starting his career in theater and silent film in his native country, before emigrating to the USA, and having a successful Hollywood film career, he was most popular during the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. He received Oscar nominations for Bulldog Drummond (1929), Condemned (1929) and Random Harvest (1942). Colman starred in several classic films, including A Tale of Two Cities (1935), Lost Horizon (1937) and The Prisoner of Zenda (1937). He also played the starring role in the Technicolor classic Kismet (1944), with Marlene Dietrich, which was nominated for four Academy Awards. In 1947, he won Academy Award for Best Actor and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for the film A Double Life. Colman was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, for his work in motion pictures. He was awarded a second star for his television work. Ronald Charles Colman was born in Richmond, Surrey, England, the second son and fourth child of Charles Colman, a silk merchant, and his wife Marjory Read Fraser. His siblings comprised Eric, Edith and Marjorie. He was educated at boarding school in Littlehampton, where he discovered that he enjoyed acting, despite his shyness. He intended to study engineering at Cambridge, but his father's sudden death from pneumonia in 1907 made it financially impossible. First World War While working as a clerk at the British Steamship Company in the City of London, he joined the London Scottish Regiment in 1909 as a Territorial Army soldier, and on being mobilized at the outbreak of the First World War, crossed the English Channel to France in September 1914 to take part in the fighting on the Western Front. On 31 October 1914, at the Battle of Messines, Colman was seriously wounded by shrapnel in his ankle, which gave him a limp that he would attempt to hide throughout the rest of his acting career. As a consequence, he was invalided out of the British Army in 1915. Colman had sufficiently recovered from wartime injuries to appear at the London Coliseum on 19 June 1916, as Rahmat Sheikh in The Maharani of Arakan, with Lena Ashwell; at the Playhouse in December that year as Stephen Weatherbee in the Charles Goddard/Paul Dickey play The Misleading Lady; at the Court Theatre in March 1917 as Webber in Partnership. At the same theatre the following year he appeared in Eugène Brieux's Damaged Goods. At the Ambassadors Theatre in February 1918 he played George Lubin in The Little Brother. During 1918, he toured as David Goldsmith in The Bubble.[citation needed] In 1920, Colman went to America and toured with Robert Warwick in The Dauntless Three, and subsequently toured with Fay Bainter in East is West. He married his first wife, Thelma Raye, in 1920; they divorced in 1934. At the Booth Theatre in New York in January 1921 he played the Temple Priest in William Archer's play The Green Goddess. With George Arliss at the 39th Street Theatre in August 1921 he appeared as Charles in The Nightcap. Director Henry King engaged him as the leading man in the 1923 film The White Sister, opposite Lillian Gish. He was an immediate success. Thereafter Colman virtually abandoned the stage for film. He became a very popular silent film star in both romantic and adventure films, among them The Dark Angel (1925), Stella Dallas (1926), Beau Geste (1926) and The Winning of Barbara Worth (1926). His dark hair and eyes and his athletic and riding ability (he did most of his own stunts until late in his career) led reviewers to describe him as a "Valentino type". He was often cast in similar, exotic roles.[7] Towards the end of the silent era, Colman was teamed with Hungarian actress Vilma Bánky under Samuel Goldwyn; the two were a popular film team rivalling Greta Garbo and John Gilbert. Although he was a huge success in silent films, he was unable to capitalize on one of his chief assets until the advent of the talking picture, "his beautifully modulated and cultured voice." also described as "a bewitching, finely-modulated, resonant voice." Colman was often viewed as a suave English gentleman, whose voice embodied chivalry and mirrored the image of a "Stereotypical English gentleman." Commenting on Colman's appeal, English film critic David Shipman stated that Colman was "'the dream lover - calm, dignified, trustworthy. Although he was a lithe figure in adventure stories, his glamour - which was genuine - came from his respectability; he was an aristocratic figure without being aloof.'" His first major talkie success was in 1930, when he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for two roles – Condemned and Bulldog Drummond. He thereafter appeared in a number of notable films: Raffles in 1930, The Masquerader in 1933, Clive of India and A Tale of Two Cities in 1935, Under Two Flags, The Prisoner of Zenda and Lost Horizon in 1937, If I Were King in 1938 and Random Harvest and The Talk of the Town in 1942. He won the Best Actor Oscar in 1948 for A Double Life. He next starred in a screwball comedy, 1950's Champagne for Caesar. However, Colman died and the film became a British production starring George Sanders, who married Colman's widow, Benita Hume. Fame Colman has been mentioned in many novels, but he is specifically mentioned in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man because of his charming, well-known voice. The main character of this novel says that he wishes he could have a voice like Colman's because it is charming, and relates the voice to that of a gentleman or a man from Esquire magazine. Colman was indeed very well known for his voice. Encyclopædia Britannica says that Colman had a "resonant, mellifluous speaking voice with a unique, pleasing timbre". Along with his charming voice, Colman had a very confident performing manner that helped make him a major star of sound films. Radio and television Beginning in 1945, Colman made many guest appearances on The Jack Benny Program on radio, alongside his second wife, stage and screen actress Benita Hume, who he married in 1938. Their comedy work as Benny's perpetually exasperated next-door neighbors led to their own radio comedy The Halls of Ivy from 1950 to 1952, created by Fibber McGee & Molly mastermind Don Quinn, on which the Colmans played the literate, charming president of a middle American college and his former-actress wife. Colman was also the host and occasional star of the syndicated anthology Favorite Story, (1946-1949). Of note was his narration and portrayal of Scrooge in a 1948 production of "A Christmas Carol". Colman died on 19 May 1958, aged 67, from acute emphysema in Santa Barbara, California, and was interred in the Santa Barbara Cemetery. He had a daughter, Juliet Benita Colman (born 1944), by his second wife Benita Hume.[17] Awards and honours Colman was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Actor. At the 3rd Academy Awards ceremony he received a single nomination for his work in two films; Bulldog Drummond (1929) and Condemned (1929). He was nominated again for Random Harvest (1942), before winning for A Double Life (1947), where he played the role of Anthony John, an actor playing Othello who comes to identify with the character. He also won the Golden Globe award for Best Actor in 1947 for his role in A Double Life. In 2002, Colman's Oscar statuette was sold at auction by Christie's for US$174,500.[18] Colman is a recipient of the George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film. Colman has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles, one for motion pictures at 6801 Hollywood Blvd. and one for television at 1623 Vine Street. He is the subject of a biography written by his daughter Juliet Benita Colman in 1975, "Ronald Colman: A Very Private Person".

John William Colman of Hamilton, Southern Grampians Shire County, VIC Australia was born in 1880 in Maryborough, Central Goldfields Shire County, and died at age 68 years old on August 10, 1949 in Hamilton, Southern Grampians Shire County.

Emily Frances (Colman) Pedley was born in 1897 in Wyuna, VIC Australia to George William Colman and Frances Margaret (Nairne) Colman, and had siblings Alice Elizabeth (Colman) Cole, Ethel Gladys (Colman) Styler, and Margaret Ann (Colman) Ovens. Emily Pedley died at age 82 years old in 1979 at Nathalia VIC, Australia in Nathalia, Moira Shire County. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Emily Frances (Colman) Pedley.

Alice Elizabeth (Colman) Cole was born in 1905 at Barwo in Picola, Moira Shire County, VIC Australia, and died at age 27 years old on March 10, 1933 at Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Melbourne City County. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Alice Elizabeth (Colman) Cole.

Margaret Ann (Colman) Ovens was born in 1910, and died at age 82 years old in 1992. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Margaret Ann (Colman) Ovens.

Willie Elizabeth (Hart) Hunter Colman was born on June 27, 1915 in Seadrift, Texas USA, and died at age 78 years old on October 17, 1993 in Riviera. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Willie Elizabeth (Hart) Hunter Colman.

Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Stephanie Cogdill Colman.

Alice Edith (Letts) Colman of Hamilton, Southern Grampians Shire County, VIC Australia was born on June 23, 1884 in Dunolly, and died at age 87 years old on August 30, 1971 in Hamilton.

Honor Isabel (Playle) Colman was born in 1870, and died at age 96 years old in 1966. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Honor Isabel (Playle) Colman.

Frances Margaret (Nairne) Colman was born in 1875 to Leonard Wilson Nairne and Margaret (McGann) Nairne. She married George William Colman, and had children Emily Frances (Colman) Pedley, Alice Elizabeth (Colman) Cole, Ethel Gladys (Colman) Styler, and Margaret Ann (Colman) Ovens. Frances Colman died at age 36 years old in 1911. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Frances Margaret (Nairne) Colman.

Gary Colman of Warwick, Rhode Island United States was born in Sep. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Gary Colman.

Ethel Gladys (Colman) Styler was born in 1908 at Barwo in Picola, Moira Shire County, VIC Australia, and died at age 80 years old in September 1989. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Ethel Gladys (Colman) Styler.

Barbara (Colman) Seibert of Baltimore County, Maryland United States was born on November 3, 1954 in CT.

Willie Elizabeth (Hart/kelley) Kelley/colman was born on June 27, 1915 in Seadrift, Calhoun County, Texas United States. She was in a relationship with Herbert Hunter, and had children Betty Laura (Hunter) Rule, Fay Isabell Hunter, Walter Dewey Hunter, Norris Ray Hunter, Velma Jean Hunter, Kenneth R Hunter, Linda Sue (Hunter) Jones, and Sharon Key Hunter. Willie Kelley/colman died at age 78 years old in October 1993 in Riviera, Kleberg County. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Willie Elizabeth Kelley/Colman/hart.

Marjorie (Seagrave) Colman of Coventry, Rhode Island United States was born in October 1923, and died at age 82 years old in September 2006 in Coventry.

George William Colman was born in 1869, and died at age 63 years old in 1932 at Kyabram VIC, Australia in Kyabram, VIC Australia. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember George William Colman.

Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Theresa Ann Colman.

Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Daniel Colman.

Robert G Colman of Algonac, Saint Clair County, MI was born on May 3, 1926, and died at age 68 years old on April 24, 1995.

Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Jeffrey Colman .