James Donald

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia James Donald 18 May 1917 3 August 1993 was a Scottish actor Tall and gaunt he specialised in playing authority figures military officers doctors or scientists Donald was born in Aberdeen and made his first professional stage appearance sometime in the late1930s having been educated at Rossall School on Lancashires Fylde coast During World War II he appeared in minor roles in such propaganda classics as In Which We Serve 1942 Went the Day Well 1942 and The Way Ahead 1944 and he played Mr Winkle in the 1952 film version of The Pickwick Papers However leading roles eluded him until Lust for Life 1956 in which he played Theo Van Gogh His work in the theatre included Noël Cowards Present Laughter 1943 which starred Coward himself and The Eagle with Two Heads 1947 You Never Can Tell 1948 and The Heiress 1949 with Ralph Richardson Peggy Ashcroft and Donald Sinden He memorably portrayed Major Clipton the doctor who expresses grave doubts about the sanity of Col Nicholsons Alec Guinness efforts to build the bridge in order to show up his Japanese captors in the film The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957 The final words are his Madness Madness He also played Group Captain Ramsey the Senior British Officer in The Great Escape 1963 as well as supporting roles in other notable films both in Britain and the United States including The Vikings 1958 King Rat 1965 Cast a Giant Shadow 1966 and Quatermass and the Pit 1967 Donald starred in a 1960 television adaptation of A J Cronins The Citadel and appeared regularly in many other television dramas in the UK and USA as well as on stage In 1961 he played Prince Albert opposite Julie Harriss Queen Victoria in the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of Laurence Housmans play Victoria Regina Description above from the Wikipedia article James Donald licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia