James Mason

James Mason
Image:North by Northwest movie trailer screenshot (27).jpg Mason in North by Northwest
Birth name	James Neville Mason
Born	May 15, 1909 Huddersfield, England, United Kingdom
Died	July 27, 1984, age 75 Lausanne, Switzerland

James Neville Mason (May 15, 1909 – July 27, 1984) was a three-time Academy Award nominated English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films.

Early life

Mason was born in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England to John and Mabel Mason; his father was a wealthy merchant. Mason had no formal training as an actor and initially embarked upon it as a lark. He studied architecture at Peterhouse, Cambridge but got involved in stock theatre companies in his spare time before joining the Old Vic theatre in London under the guidance of Tyrone Guthrie and Alexander Korda who gave Mason a small film role in 1933 but fired him a few days into shooting.

Career

From 1935 to 1948 he starred in many British quota quickies. A conscientious objector during World War II (something which caused his family to break with him for many years), he became immensely popular for his brooding anti-heroes in the Gainsborough series of melodramas of the 1940s, including The Man in Grey and The Wicked Lady. In 1949 he made his first Hollywood film, Caught, and then went on to star in many more feature films and early TV shows. Nominated three times for an Oscar, he never won one.

Mason's distinctive voice enabled him to play a menacing villain as greatly as his good looks assisted him as a leading man. His roles include the declining actor in the 1954 version of A Star Is Born, a mortally wounded terrorist in Odd Man Out (1946), Brutus in the 1953 film of Julius Caesar, General Erwin Rommel twice, once in The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel in 1951, and in The Desert Rats (1953), Captain Nemo in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), a suave masterspy in North by Northwest (1959), a determined explorer in Journey to the Center of the Earth (also 1959) and Humbert Humbert in Stanley Kubrick's Lolita (1962). One of his last roles, that of a corrupt lawyer in The Verdict (1982), earned him his third and final Oscar nomination.

Mason was once in the frame to play James Bond in a 1958 TV adaptation of From Russia with Love, which was ultimately never produced. Despite being in his 50s he was still in the frame to play Bond in Dr. No before Sean Connery was cast. He was also approached to appear as Bond baddie Hugo Drax in Moonraker however he turned this down despite his renowned tendency to take any job offered him. This tendency led to certain unworthy credits on his resume, The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go, Bloodline and Hunt the Man Down being examples of this. However throughout his career he remained a powerful figure in the industry and he is now regarded as one of the finest film actors of the 20th century.

Private life

He was married twice:

• Actress Pamela Kellino (1941-1965); one daughter, the late Portland Mason, and one son, Morgan. Portland Mason was named after Portland Hoffa, the wife of the American film comedian Fred Allen; the Allens and the Masons were friends.
• Australian actress Clarissa Kaye (1971-his death)

Trivia

• Mason was a devoted lover of animals, particularly cats. He and Pamela Kellino Mason co-authored the book The Cats in Our Lives, which was published in 1949. James Mason wrote most of the book and also illustrated it. In The Cats in Our Lives, he recounted humorous and sometimes touching tales of the cats (as well as a few dogs) he had known and loved.

• In the late 1970s, Mason became a mentor to up-and-coming actor Sam Neill, who went on to have a successful career of his own.

• James Mason's autobiography, Before I Forget, was published in 1981.

• Mason survived a major heart attack in 1959 and died as a result of another on July 27 1984 in Lausanne, Switzerland. He was cremated, and (after a delay of 16 years) his ashes were buried in Corsier-sur-Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. His old friend Charlie Chaplin is in a tomb a few steps away.

• His son Morgan Mason is married to Belinda Carlisle, the former lead singer of The Go-Go's.

• James Mason Court, a road in the Marsh area of Huddersfield, is named after him.

• Was responsible for getting an unknown actor from New Zealand his first major film role. That actor was Sam Neill.

• At Expo 67, the 1967 world's fair held in Canada, James Mason was officially named Film Actor of the Century.

References in popular culture

• Graham Kennedy would use an imitation of James' distinctive voice as the default voice for an educated or English person on the Australian game show Blankety Blanks.

• In 1991, Kelsey Grammer spoofed Mason as Captain Nemo in a skit while hosting Saturday Night Live. During the skit Nemo had to try to explain various units of nautical measurements while fighting off a giant squid.

• For his audition for Saturday Night Live in 2005, Bill Hader gave an impersonation as Mason at a donut store trying to redeem an expired coupon.

• British comedian Eddie Izzard often deliberately uses a James Mason impression as his standard "voice of God" in his standup routines.

• On the DVD audio comentary of British Comedy The Mighty Boosh series two episode, "The Nightmare of Milky Joe" comedians Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt perform an impression of James Mason's vioce. In early days of The Mighty Boosh, Rich Fulcher and Noel Fielding performed "duelling Masons" in the Hen and Chickens in Highbury, London.

Filmography