Herbert Marshall

As a Hollywood leading man, the suave, gentlemanly actor played romantic roles opposite such stars as Claudette Colbert, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Barbara Stanwyck, Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis throughout the 1930s and into the 1940s.

The 1932 film Blonde Venus brought Marshall to fame among the general American public. Later the same year, he played Gaston Monescu, a sophisticated thief involved in a love triangle in Ernst Lubitsch's suggestive, light comedy Trouble in Paradise (1932). In interviews, Marshall expressed a preference for playing this sort of witty comedy role. He discussed his two early films in a 1935 interview:

I am strongly of the belief that if there had been another 'Blond Venus'—my first picture (sic), with the acute direction of von Sternberg—I would have been thrown off the screen! By the grace of God and Lubitsch, against the wishes of his company, I was next cast in a good role in 'Trouble in Paradise' for which Lubitsch seemed to think me peculiarly suited and would have been very unhappy if he had had anyone else.

He was suave in Evenings for Sale (1932) then returned to England briefly to make I Was a Spy (1933) with Saville. He was in a play in London Another Man which flopped.

Back in Hollywood MGM cast him in The Solitaire Man (1933) then for Cecil B. De Mille he appeared opposite Claudette Colbert in Four Frightened People (1934).

MGM used him for Riptide (1934) with Norma Shearer, Outcast Lady (1934) with Constance Bennett and The Painted Veil (1934) with Greta Garbo. Marshall, who often played kind and proper husbands betrayed by their wives, told several reporters that he was tired of such "gentleman" roles. Although another cuckolded husband, he appreciated his part in The Painted Veil (1934) with Garbo because his character was able to show "intestinal fortitude".

The Good Fairy (1935) had him as Margaret Sullavan's leading man; he made The Flame Within (1935) with Ann Harding, Accent on Youth (1935) with Sylvia Sidney, The Dark Angel (1935) with Fredric March and Merle Oberon, If You Could Only Cook (1935) with Jean Arthur, and The Lady Consents (1936) with Harding.

He did three films with Gertrude Michael, Till We Meet Again (1936), Forgotten Faces (1936) and Make Way for a Lady (1936), then made Girls' Dormitory (1936) with Ruth Chatterton and A Woman Rebels (1936) with Katharine Hepburn.

Marshall was reunited with Dietrich and Lubtisch in Angel (1937). He made Breakfast for Two (1937), Always Goodbye (1938) with Barbara Stanwyck, and supported Deanna Durbin in Mad About Music (1938).

By mid-decade, the press noted how popular he was as a romantic actor. Syndicated columnist Edwin Schallert wrote: "The demand for Herbert Marshall's talents continues to spread far and wide. Even the newer and younger leading women, it is felt, need to have his proficient romanticism displayed in their pictures." Another reporter referred to him as the current "vogue in leading men" and noted that the top actresses often asked for him to appear with them.

After Woman Against Woman (1938), Marshall was reunited with Colbert in Zaza (1938).

During the 1940s, Marshall was less associated with romantic leading man parts. He supported Maureen O'Hara in A Bill of Divorcement (1940) and played a villain for Hitchcock in Foreign Correspondent (1940). Marshall had one of his more famous roles when cast as Bette Davis' cuckolded husband in The Letter (1940), directed by William Wyler with Bette Davis; Marshall previously appeared in a silent film version of this play.

After making Adventure in Washington (1941) Marshall starred as maltreated, principled husband Horace Giddens in The Little Foxes, again with Davis and Wyler, which received nine Academy Award nominations including one for Best Picture. The film's review in Variety noted "Marshall turns in one of his top performances in the exacting portrayal of a suffering, dying man."

During the Second World War, Marshall made numerous appearances on the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS), hosting The Globe Theatre and guest-starring on Command Performance and Mail Call, among other programmes. He was also one of the leaders of a Hollywood British committee that helped organise the community's contributions to British war relief. In 1940, Marshall co-starred with Rosalind Russell in Noël Coward's Still Life (from Tonight at 8.30) at the El Capitan. The proceeds went to the British Red Cross. In 1943, he appeared briefly in the RKO film, Forever and a Day. The profits from the film funded a variety of war charities. The same year, Marshall wrote a public letter of encouragement to his Hollywood colleagues serving overseas. He also performed in the short film, The Shining Future (1944), later condensed and renamed Road to Victory, which was intended to sell Canadian war bonds. Marshall and twenty-five other actors each received a plaque from a representative of the Canadian government for their participation in the film.

Marshall continued to act in films through the war, increasingly as a supporting actor: When Ladies Meet (1941), Kathleen (1941) with Shirley Temple, and The Moon and Sixpence (1942) where he played a character based on W. Somerset Maugham.

He could be seen in Flight for Freedom (1943), Young Ideas (1944), Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble (1944), The Enchanted Cottage (1945) and The Unseen (1945).

In 1936, Marshall began lending his talents to radio, appearing on Lux Radio Theatre (at least 19 appearances), The Screen Guild Theatre (at least 16 appearances), The Jell-O Program (three appearances, including one as host), The Burns and Allen Show (two appearances), Birds Eye Open House, The Pepsodent Show and Hollywood Star Time (taking over as host in October 1946). He made radio history in July 1940 as the narrator of "The Lodger", the first audition show of the Suspense series (making 20 appearances on the program). His most famous role was as globetrotting intelligence agent Ken Thurston in The Man Called 'X' (1944–52). The series, first aired on CBS as a summer replacement for the Lux Radio Theatre, introduced Thurston as an employee of an agency known only as "The Bureau". His boss, dubbed "The Chief", tasked him with dealing with some of the world's most hardened, sophisticated criminals, including smugglers, murderers, black marketeers, saboteurs, kidnappers, various types of thieves, corrupt politicians and rogue scientists. Thurston's sidekick/nemesis Egon Zellschmidt was played by character actor Hans Conried during the first season. From 1945 to 1952, Russian comic and musician Leon Belasco appeared in the same role as Pegon Zellschmidt. The show was broadcast not only for the sake of entertainment but it also "alerted an anxious war-weary world to the inherent dangers of peace after war."

Using his own money for travel, Marshall visited many military hospitals during the war. In particular, he focused on encouraging soldiers with amputations to keep a positive attitude and not to think of themselves as handicapped or limited. Despite his usual reluctance to discuss his own injury, he talked freely about his personal experiences in order to give these amputees tips on how to use and adjust to their new artificial limbs. Although mostly kept private, a 1945 article in Motion Picture Magazine reported, against Marshall's wishes, on his work at military hospitals. The author Patty De Roulf insisted that his story needed to be told to help injured veterans and their families and to show that "Marshall is doing one of the finest war jobs any human being can do." She interviewed one young officer, who recalled:

Herbert Marshall gave me back my life. When I found out I had a metal claw instead of a hand, I was completely broken...Then one day, while I was in the hospital, we were told Herbert Marshall, the film star, was coming to talk to us. I was disgusted with the idea. A collar ad, I thought, coming to give us a Pollyanna speech!

It turned out to be anything but that. Mr. Marshall talked real sense into us. He followed it up with demonstrations, actually showing us what he could do. Before he left, we were convinced that if he had been able to lead a normal life, we could do the same.

The article also quoted a veteran with a double amputation (left leg and right foot), who praised Marshall for showing him how to dance with a prosthetic leg. He considered the actor's advice and example to be his Ten Commandments. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Head of the Allied Forces in Europe, noted in private that, of all the film stars he met in Europe during the war, he was most impressed with Marshall and Madeleine Carroll (who worked as a nurse at field hospitals).

After the war, Marshall worked almost exclusively as a supporting actor in films: Crack-Up (1946), a noir; The Razor's Edge (1946), playing Somerset Maugham; Duel in the Sun (1946), the epic Western; Ivy (1947), with Joan Fontaine; High Wall (1947), another noir; The Secret Garden (1949) with Margaret O'Brien at MGM; The Underworld Story (1950); Black Jack (1950), billed second to George Sanders; and Anne of the Indies (1951).

Beginning in 1950, Marshall performed periodically on television, starting with a production of An Inspector Calls for Robert Montgomery Presents. He was in The Ford Television Theatre. He appeared as the "mystery guest" on an episode of the popular game show What's My Line? in November 1954.

Marshall continued to appear in films such as Angel Face (1953), a film noir; Riders to the Stars (1954), his first sci fi; Gog (1954), another sci-fi in 3-D; The Black Shield of Falworth (1954) with Tony Curtis; The Virgin Queen (1955) with Davis; Wicked as They Come (1956) with Arlene Dahl; and The Weapon (1956). He received acclaim for his performances in Stage Struck (1958) and The Fly (1958).

However he was more likely to be found on television in The Best of Broadway (a version of The Philadelphia Story), The Elgin Hour, Celebrity Playhouse, Lux Video Theatre (including an adaptation of The Browning Version and Now, Voyager), The Loretta Young Show, Playhouse 90, Studio One in Hollywood, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Adventures in Paradise.

Marshall's final performances include the feature films College Confidential (1960), Midnight Lace (1960), A Fever in the Blood (1961), Five Weeks in a Balloon (1962), The List of Adrian Messenger (1963) and The Caretakers (1963). He guest starred on episodes of Hong Kong, Michael Shayne, Zane Grey Theater, and 77 Sunset Strip. "They don't seem to make my kind of pictures any more," he said in 1964.

His last performance was in the film The Third Day (1965).

Marshall, a quietly-spoken man who was one of the pillars of the Hollywood British community, was widely respected and well-liked due to his talent and professionalism, pleasant and easygoing demeanor, sensitivity, gentlemanly and courteous manner, witty sense of humour, and his "very great personal charm". Among the actor's many friends in the British community were Edmund Goulding, Eric Blore, Ronald Colman, Clive Brook, Merle Oberon, C. Aubrey Smith, David Niven, Basil Rathbone, Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Brian Aherne. Other friends included Raymond Massey, Rod La Rocque, Vilma Bánky, Kay Francis, Mary Astor, Irving Thalberg, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Melvyn Douglas, Bette Davis and Grace Moore. Although popular and likeable, Marshall suffered from bouts of depression through much of his life. In his free time, he especially enjoyed sketching and fishing.

Marshall was married five times and divorced three. In 1914, he appeared with Mollie Maitland (whose real name was Hilda Lloyd Bosley) in The Headmaster; the following year, they were married. Five years later, he first appeared with Edna Best, who became his most frequent stage co-star; they also made three films together (The Calendar, Michael and Mary and The Faithful Heart). Marshall and Best were married in November 1928, following their respective divorces (they had been cohabiting for the previous three years). In 1931, Best broke a lucrative contract with MGM and walked off the filming of The Phantom of Paris with John Gilbert in order to be with Marshall in New York, where he was performing in a play. In response to a press inquiry, he said: "I'm sorry if Hollywood is annoyed, but Edna and I happen to be in love with each other and we want to be together."

During a return trip to London in late November 1932, Marshall and a pregnant Best gave an interview in which they stated their intention to briefly return to Hollywood the following summer. They would bring a nanny to help look after their daughter. At some point, Best and young Sarah returned to London while Marshall received more film offers. They continued making trips to see each other. In late 1933, actress Phyllis Barry had tea with Marshall and Claudette Colbert after they returned from Hawaii, where they had been filming Four Frightened People. She remembered that Marshall "insisted on my talking all the time because he said I sounded just like his wife". By the time Marshall was filming Riptide in early 1934, he reportedly was drinking heavily due to his problems with Best and increased phantom pain. (Director Goulding and co-star Norma Shearer successfully convinced him to curb his consumption of alcohol.) Not long after, Goulding introduced him to Gloria Swanson.

In 1940, after a long separation from her husband and wanting to marry someone else, Best divorced Marshall on grounds of desertion (he lived in Hollywood, and she lived in Britain). She remarried almost immediately. Twenty days later, he married actress and model Elizabeth Roberta "Lee" Russell, a sister of film star Rosalind Russell. Two years prior to their marriage, Russell's recently divorced ex-husband, songwriter Eddy Brandt, initiated an alienation of affection suit for $250,000 against Marshall, whom he accused of stealing his wife. Brandt later told the press that he and the actor settled out of court for $10,000. Marshall publicly denied this claim. In 1947, Russell divorced him in Mexico. They parted on amiable terms. Instead of explaining the reasons for her divorce, she told the press at the time: "I will never say anything against Bart. He is one of the most charming people I have ever known."

He was married to his fourth wife, former Ziegfeld girl and actress Patricia "Boots" Mallory, from 1947 until her death in 1958. They were wed in August 1947, with Nigel Bruce acting as best man. After a 16-month illness, Mallory died of a throat ailment at age 45. Marshall was deeply troubled by her death and had to be hospitalised for pneumonia and pleurisy less than two months later. He married Dee Anne Kahmann, his final wife, on 25 April 1960 when he was almost 70 years old. She was a twice-divorced, 38-year-old department store buyer. They remained married until his death.

Marshall had a daughter Sarah by Edna Best and another daughter Ann by Lee Russell. Sarah Marshall followed her parents and grandparents into the acting profession, appearing in many of the most popular television shows of the 1960s, including Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, Perry Mason, F Troop and Daniel Boone. Herbert and Sarah Marshall acted together in a television version of J.B. Priestley's play An Inspector Calls in 1951. His younger daughter, Ann Marshall (often called Annie), worked for many years as Jack Nicholson's personal assistant. He also had at least four step-children, two from his marriage to Best and two from his marriage to Mallory. His grandson Timothy M. Bourne, Sarah Marshall's only child, is an independent film producer. Bourne was the executive producer of the Academy Award-winning film The Blind Side (2009).

In the early 1930s, Marshall was commonly rumoured within Hollywood social circles to have had affairs with both his Trouble in Paradise co-stars Kay Francis and Miriam Hopkins. In January 1934, Marshall, while still married to Best, began a serious affair with actress Gloria Swanson, who recounted their relationship in her memoirs, Swanson on Swanson (1980). She described Marshall at the time of their first meeting as "a handsome man in his early forties with a gentle face and soft brown eyes", who had "one of the most perfect musical voices I had ever heard". Swanson also wrote that the actor was "sweet beyond belief" and "a nice man", who "utterly charmed" her and her children. He constantly wrote her love notes, and when she was out of town, he sent her romantic telegrams almost hourly. (Many of these personal documents now reside at the University of Texas at Austin's Harry Ransom Center archives, as part of the Gloria Swanson Papers.) Newspapers and film fan magazines widely discussed his affair with Swanson at the time, which he made little attempt to keep secret.

In November 1936, Swanson left him once she accepted that he would not divorce Edna Best to marry her. Although insisting they were "madly in love," she believed that he would not demand a divorce because of his typically docile nature, reluctance to deliberately hurt people, and guilt over his separation from his young daughter. "He would always turn to alcohol rather than face a painful scene," she remembered. Despite an emotional parting, near the end of her life Swanson, who was married six times, wrote: "I was never so convincingly and thoroughly loved as I was by Herbert Marshall."

A few months into their relationship, Marshall became a subject of media gossip after a confrontation at El Morocco in New York City. A photographer snapped pictures of the couple dining together. When Marshall saw that Swanson was annoyed by the photographer, he "went into one of the most spectacular rages of all times," according to Modern Screen. In a syndicated column, Ed Sullivan wrote that he watched Marshall "rise violently" from his seat and chase the cameraman down the aisles between the nightclub's tables.

Around two months after this incident, Marshall again received substantial publicity after screenwriter John Monk Saunders (husband of actress Fay Wray) punched him in the face and knocked him to the floor at a dinner party given by director Ernst Lubitsch. According to a wire report, Marshall took exception to something Saunders said about Gloria Swanson. Later that night, after Marshall called Saunders a derogatory name, Saunders hit him while he was, in his own words, "seated...and looking in an opposite direction". Wray later added details unreported at the time. According to her, Marshall referred to Saunders as a "bestial bastard" after the screenwriter ogled Swanson's décolletage. Articles about the incident commonly mentioned Marshall's prosthetic leg, which had only very rarely been talked about in the press up to that point.