Kenneth Gilbert More CBE (20 September 1914 – 12 July 1982) was a highly successful English film actor^[1] during the post-World War II era and starred in many feature films, often in the role of an archetypal carefree and happy-go-lucky middle-class gentleman. As More himself described it, "I seem fated to be either the stiff-upper-lip war hero or the hearty back-slapping idiot".^[2]

Early life[link]

Kenneth More was born in Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, the only son of Charles Gilbert More, a Royal Naval Air Service pilot, and Edith Winifred Watkins, the daughter of a Cardiff solicitor. He was educated at Victoria College, Jersey. He spent part of his childhood in the Channel Islands, where his father was general manager of the Jersey Eastern Railway. After he left school, he followed the family tradition by training as a civil engineer. He gave up his training and worked for a while in Sainsbury's.

When More was 17 his father died, and he applied to join the RAF, but failed the medical test for equilibrium. He went to Canada, intending to work as a fur trapper, but was sent back for lacking immigration papers.

Acting career[link]

On his return, a family friend, Vivian Van Damm, took him on as assistant manager at the Windmill Theatre, where his job included spotting audience members misbehaving or using opera glasses to look at the nude players during its Revudeville variety shows.^[3] He was soon promoted to playing straight man in the Revudeville comedy routines, appearing in his first sketch in August 1935. He played there for a year, which then led to regular work in repertory, including Newcastle, performing in plays such as Burke and Hare and Dracula's Daughter. He continued this work until World War II, during which time he served as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, seeing active service aboard the cruiser HMS Aurora and the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, returning to acting in 1946.

Film career[link]

On demobilization he went to work for Wolverhampton repertory, then appeared on stage in the West End in And No Birds Sing (1946), then played Badger in a TV adaptation of Toad of Toad Hall. He was seen by Noël Coward playing a small role on stage in Power Without Glory (1947), which led to being cast in Peace In Our Time (1947).^[4]

Around this time, More began appearing in films, starting with a small role in Scott of the Antarctic (1948) for which he was paid ₤500. His parts grew bigger and he achieved a notable stage success in The Way Things Go (1950) with Ronald Squire, from whom More later claimed he learned his stage technique. ^[2] Roland Culver recommended More audition for a part in a new play by Terence Rattigan, The Deep Blue Sea (1952); he was successful and achieved tremendous critical acclaim in the role of Freddie.

Stardom[link]

Director Henry Cornelius approached More during the run of The Deep Blue Sea and offered him £3,500 to play one of the four leads in Genevieve (1953). The resulting movie was a massive hit at the British box office, as was Doctor in the House (1954), which earned More a BAFTA Award as best newcomer. The Deep Blue Sea was adapted for television and seen by an audience of 11 million. More signed a five year contract with Sir Alexander Korda at £10,000 a year.^[5] '

He was now established as one of Britain's biggest stars and Korda announced plans to feature him in two films based on true stories, one about the Transatlantic flight of Alcock and Brown in 1919 co-starring Denholm Elliot^[5], and the other Clifton James, the double for Field Marshall Montgomery.^[6] The first film was never made and the second done with another actor. Korda also wanted More to star in a new version of The Four Feathers, Storm Over the Nile (1956) but he turned it down. However More did accept Korda's offer to appear in a film adaptation of The Deep Blue Sea which saw him win Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival.^[7]

More starred in Raising a Riot (1955), which was a hit. He then received an offer from David Lean to play the lead role in an adaptation of The Wind Cannot Read by Richard Mason. More was unsure about whether the public would accept him in the part and turned it down, a decision he later regarded as "the greatest mistake I ever made professionally."^[8] (Lean dropped the project and was not involved in the eventual 1958 film version which starred Dirk Bogarde).

However for the moment More's career continued to go from strength to strength. He played the Royal Air Force fighter ace, Douglas Bader, in Reach for the Sky (1956), which was the most popular British film of the year. By 1956 his asking price was £25,000 a film.^[9] He received offers to go to Hollywood but turned them down, unsure his persona would be effective there. However, he started using American co-stars and directors more often, and negotiated a deal with 20th Century-Fox in association with the Rank Organisation to make two films a year^[2]

He turned down an offer from Roy Ward Baker to play a German POW in The One That Got Away (1957) but agreed to play the lead in the Titanic film for the same director, A Night to Remember (1958). This was the first of a seven year contract with Rank at a fee of £40,000 a film.^[2]

More specialised in likeable, unflappable English heroes ("an air of hectoring confidence ... heroic in a cocky big-brotherly way"),^[10] a persona that could in some roles show darker aspects, as with the controlling Crichton in The Admirable Crichton and the brash Ambrose Claverhouse in Genevieve.

In 1959, Rank's John Davis gave permission for More to work outside his contract to appear in The Guns of Navarone. More, however, made the mistake of heckling and swearing at Davis at a BAFTA dinner at the Dorchester, losing both the role (which went to David Niven) and his contract with Rank.^[3]

Decline[link]

For a number of years More remained a large star in Britain, enjoying noble success with Sink the Bismarck! (1960). However box office receipts started to decline for films such as Man In The Moon (1960) and Some People (1962). He tried to change his image with The Comedy Man (1963) which the public did not like, although it became his favourite role. His film parts got smaller in the 1960s, with some thinking his popularity declined when he left his wife to live with Angela Douglas.^[11] Film writer Andrew Spicer thought that "More's persona was so strongly associated with traditional middle-class values that his stardom could not survive the shift towards working-class iconoclasts" during that decade.^[12]

More appeared in a 35 minute prologue to The Collector (1965) which ended up being removed entirely from the final film, and his part in Dark of the Sun (1968) was also reduced.^[2] He made a number of cameos in such war films as The Longest Day (1962), Battle of Britain (1969), and Oh! What a Lovely War (1969).

Revival[link]

More's popularity recovered in the 1960s through West End stage performances and television roles, especially following his success in The Forsyte Saga, and as the title character in ATV's 1974 Father Brown.^[13] Critic David Shipman said his personal notices for his performance in The Secretary Bird (1968) "must be among the best accorded any light comedian during this century".^[14]He is also known for his role as the Ghost of Christmas Present in 1970's Scrooge.

More stood in the wings to replace Bernard Lee as M in the James Bond film Live and Let Die when it wasn't known if an ill Lee would be able to appear.

Personal life[link]

More was married three times. His first marriage in 1939 to actress Beryl Johnstone (one daughter, Susan, born 1941) ended in divorce in 1946. He married Mabel Edith "Bill" Barkby in 1952 (one daughter, Sarah, born 1954) but left her in 1968 for Angela Douglas, an actress 26 years his junior, causing considerable estrangement from friends and family. He was married to Douglas (whom he nicknamed "Shrimp")^[3] from 17 March 1968 until his death.

Kenneth More published two autobiographies, Happy Go Lucky in 1959 and More or Less in 1978. In the second book he related how he had had since childhood a recurrent dream of something akin to a huge wasp descending towards him. During the war he experienced a Nazi Stuka bomber descending in just such a manner. After that he claimed never to have had that dream again. Producer Danny Angel successfully sued More for libel over comments made in his second autobiography in 1980.^[15]

More and Douglas were separated for several years during the 1970s but reunited when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.^[15] He died of the disease on 12 July 1982, aged 67, and was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium.

The Kenneth More Theatre, named in his honour, is in Ilford, London.

Appraisal[link]

More's skill as a performer has been highly regarded by critics such as David Shipman. Regarding his performance in The Admirable Crichton, Shipman said that:

It wasn't just that he had superb comic timing: one could see absolutely why the family trusted their fates to him. No other British actor had come so close to that dependable, reliable quality of the great Hollywood stars - you would trust him through thick and thin. And he was more humorous than, say, Gary Cooper, more down-to-earth than, say, Cary Grant.^[14]

Filmography[link]

Select Theatre Credits[link]

• Windmill Theatre - 1935
• Do You Remember? - Barry O’Brien Touring Company, Aug-Nov 1937
• Stage Hands Never Lie by Olive Remple - Nov, 1937
• Stage Distinguished Gathering by James Parish - Wimbeldon Theatre, August 1937
• And No Birds Sing by Rev Arthur Platt - Aldwych Theatre, Nov 1946
• Power Without Glory - Feb-April 1947
• Peace In Our Time by Noël Coward - Lyric Theatre, July 1948
• The Way Things Go - Phoenix Theatre, May 1950
• The Deep Blue Sea by Terence Rattigan - Duchess Theatre, March 1952
• The Angry Deep - Brighton, January 1960 - Brighton - director only
• Out of the Crocodile - Phoenix Theatre, Oct 1963
• Our Man Crichton - Shaftesbury Theatre, Dec 1964 - ran six months
• The Secretary Bird - Savoy Theatre, Oct 1968
• The Winslow Boy by Terence Rattigan - New Theatre, Nov 1970 - ran nine months
• Getting On by Alan Bennett - Queen's Theatre, Oct 1971 - ran nine months
• Signs of the Times by Jeremy Kingston - Vaudeville Theatre, June 1973
• Kenneth More Requests the Pleasure of Your Company - Kenneth More Theatre, April 1977 - an evening of poetry, prose and music
• On Approval - Vaudeville Theatre, June 1977

Writings[link]

• Happy Go Lucky (1959)
• Kindly Leave the Stage (1965)
• More or Less (1978)

Box Office Popularity[link]

Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, exhibitors consistently voted Moore one of the most popular stars at the British box office.

• 1954 - 5th most popular British star^[16]
• 1955 - 5th most popular British star^[17]
• 1956 - most popular star^[18]
• 1957 - 2nd most popular star^[19]
• 1958 - 3rd most popular star^[20]
• 1959 - most popular British star^[21]
• 1960 - most popular star^[22]
• 1961 - 3rd most popular star^[23]
• 1962 - 4th most popolar star^[24]

Awards[link]

• 1953 Nominated as Best British Actor (BAFTA) for Genevieve
• 1954 Won Best British Actor (BAFTA) for Doctor in the House
• 1955 Won Best Actor at Venice Film Festival for The Deep Blue Sea
• 1955 Won Most Promising International Star (Variety Club)
• 1955 Nominated Best British Actor (BAFTA) for The Deep Blue Sea
• 1956 Nominated Best British Actor for Reach for the Sky
• 1970 Awarded the CBE in the New Year’s Honours

See also[link]

• Cinema of the United Kingdom
• List of British actors and actresses

References[link]

Bibliography

• Sheridan Morley, "More, Kenneth Gilbert (1914–1982)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 12 Sept 2007

External links[link]

• Kenneth More at the Internet Movie Database
• Kenneth More at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Kenneth More at TCM
• Kenneth More Theatre