| Alan Mowbray | |
| Birth Name: | Alfred Ernest Allen |
| Birth Date: | 18 August 1896 |
| Birth Place: | London, England |
| Death Place: | Hollywood, California, U.S. |
| Resting Place: | Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City |
| Occupation: | Actor |
| Years Active: | 1922 - 1969 |
| Children: | 2 |
Alan Mowbray MM (born Alfred Ernest Allen; 18 August 1896 – 25 March 1969) was an English stage and film actor who found success in Hollywood.
Mowbray was born in London, England. He served with distinction in the British Army in World War I, being awarded the Military Medal and the French Croix de Guerre for bravery in action. He applied for transfer to the Royal Air Force, which was granted just six days before the war ended. This placed him in London on Armistice Day. His service came to an end when the Royal Air Force wanted another seven years from him.
Mowbray began his stage career in London in 1922, as an actor and stage manager. In 1923 he arrived in the United States and was soon acting with New York stock companies. He debuted on Broadway in The Sport of Kings (1926); in 1929 he wrote, directed and starred in the unsuccessful Dinner Is Served.
Mowbray made his film debut in God's Gift to Women (1931) playing a butler, a role in which he was thereafter often cast. In a contemporary pulp magazine story, Raymond Chandler lampooned Mowbray's distinctive clipped speech in these roles: a butler is described as having "a wing collar and an accent like Alan Mowbray."[1]
Mowbray appeared in five more pictures in 1931, notably portraying George Washington in Alexander Hamilton. In 1935, he played one of the male leads in Becky Sharp, the first feature-length film in full-colour Technicolor, as well as playing the lead in the farcical Night Life of the Gods, based on a Thorne Smith novel. It was for another Thorne Smith–derived film, Topper (1937), that Mowbray may be best remembered; he played Topper's butler Wilkins, a role he reprised the following year in Topper Takes a Trip. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Mowbray worked steadily, appearing in over 120 films including the Oscar-nominated My Man Godfrey (1937).
In the 1950s, Mowbray's film roles decreased, and he began to appear on television. He played the title role in the DuMont TV series Colonel Humphrey Flack, which first aired in 1953–54 and was revived in 1958–59. In the 1954–55 television season, Mowbray played Mr. Swift, the drama coach of the character Mickey Mulligan, in NBC's short-lived The Mickey Rooney Show: Hey, Mulligan. He portrayed the character Stewart Styles, a maitre d with a checkered past in the 1960-1961 adventure/drama series Dante, reprising a role he had originally played in several episodes of Four Star Theatre. Mowbray appeared in the titular role as a crooked astrologer in the 1959 episode "The Misfortune Teller" of the Maverick television series starring James Garner and Kathleen Crowley, and as Cranshaw in the episode "Quite a Woman" of the 1961 series The Investigators starring James Franciscus.
In 1956, Mowbray appeared in three major films, The King and I, The Man Who Knew Too Much and Around the World in 80 Days. His final film role was as Captain Norcross in A Majority of One in 1961. In 1963, he returned to Broadway in the successful comedy Enter Laughing, playing Marlowe, the unscrupulous mentor to David Kolowitz (played by Alan Arkin).
Mowbray was a founding member of the Screen Actors Guild in 1933, writing a personal check to fund the group's incorporation and serving as the first vice president.
Mowbray married Lorraine Carpenter in 1927. Together they had two children, including daughter Patricia, who, at age 28 married her father's friend, 70-year-old Canadian actor Douglass Dumbrille, in 1960.[2]
Unusually for a Hollywood star, Mowbray was less of a fan of seeing himself on the screen, but enjoyed working behind the scenes. In addition to helping found the Screen Actors Guild,[3] he was among the founders of the Hollywood Cricket Club. He was a prominent early member of the Masquers Club, and donated to the group's long-time clubhouse at 1765 N. Sycamore Street in Hollywood. He also was a founder of the British United Services Club,[4] a club for ex British Military members in Hollywood that met at the Masquers.
Mowbray cooperated heavily with the FBI in the investigation of Japanese Spy Frederick Rutland,[5] keeping it secret for the rest of his life, even though he ironically played a spy in the original The_Man_from_U.N.C.L.E.
Mowbray died of a heart attack in 1969 in Hollywood, survived by his wife and children. His body is interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California.
| Year | Film | Role | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1931 | God's Gift to Women | Auguste, Toto's Butler | ||
| 1931 | The Man in Possession | Sir Charles Cartwright | Sam Wood (uncredited) | |
| 1931 | Guilty Hands | Gordon Rich | ||
| 1931 | Alexander Hamilton | George Washington | ||
| 1931 | Left Over Ladies | Jerry | ||
| 1931 | Honor of the Family | Tony Revere | ||
| 1931 | Nice Women | Mark Chandler | ||
| 1932 | Lovers Courageous | Lamone | ||
| 1932 | The Silent Witness | Arthur Drinton | ||
| 1932 | Hotel Continental | Walter Underwood | ||
| 1932 | The World and the Flesh | Dimitri | ||
| 1932 | Man About Town | Ivan Boris | ||
| 1932 | The Man from Yesterday | Dr. Waite | ||
| 1932 | Winner Take All | the Etiquette Teacher | ||
| 1932 | The Man Called Back | King's Counsel | ||
| 1932 | Jewel Robbery | Detective Fritz | ||
| 1932 | Two Against the World | George 'Georgie' Walton | ||
| 1932 | The Phantom President | uncredited | ||
| 1932 | Sherlock Holmes | Colonel Gore-King | ||
| 1933 | Our Betters | Lord George Grayston | ||
| 1933 | A Study in Scarlet | |||
| 1933 | Peg o' My Heart | Capt. Christopher 'Chris' Brent | Robert Z. Leonard (uncredited) | |
| 1933 | The Midnight Club | Arthur Bradley | ||
| 1933 | Voltaire | Count De Sarnac | ||
| 1933 | Berkeley Square | Major Clinton | ||
| 1933 | The World Changes | Sir Phillip Ivor | ||
| 1933 | Roman Scandals | Majordomo | ||
| 1933 | Her Secret | Nils Norton | Warren Millais | |
| 1934 | Long Lost Father | Sir Tony Gelding | ||
| 1934 | The House of Rothschild | Prince Metternich | Maude T. Howell (asst.) | |
| 1934 | Where Sinners Meet | Nicholas | ||
| 1934 | Little Man, What Now? | Franz Schluter | ||
| 1934 | Cheaters | Paul Southern | ||
| 1934 | The Girl from Missouri | Lord Douglas | ||
| 1934 | One More River | Forsythe | ||
| 1934 | Embarrassing Moments | Aheam | ||
| 1934 | Charlie Chan in London | Geoffrey Richmond | ||
| 1935 | Night Life of the Gods | Hunter Hawk | ||
| 1935 | Becky Sharp | Rawdon Crawley | ||
| 1935 | Lady Tubbs | Elyot Wembsleigh | ||
| 1935 | The Gay Deception | Lord Clewe | ||
| 1935 | She Couldn't Take It | Alan Bartlett | ||
| 1935 | In Person | Jay Holmes | ||
| 1936 | Rose-Marie | Premier | ||
| 1936 | Muss 'em Up | Paul Harding | Charles Vidor[6] | |
| 1936 | Give Us This Night | Forcellini | ||
| 1936 | Desire | Dr. Maurice Pauquet | ||
| 1936 | The Case Against Mrs. Ames | Lawrence Waterson | ||
| 1936 | Fatal Lady | Uberto Malla | ||
| 1936 | Mary of Scotland | Throckmorton | ||
| 1936 | My Man Godfrey | Tommy Gray | ||
| 1936 | Ladies in Love | Paul Sandor | ||
| 1936 | Four Days' Wonder | Archibald Fenton | ||
| 1936 | Rainbow on the River | Ralph Layton | ||
| 1937 | On the Avenue | Frederick Sims | William Seiter (fill-in) | |
| 1937 | The King and the Chorus Girl | Donald Taylor | ||
| 1937 | As Good as Married | Wally | ||
| 1937 | Marry the Girl | Dr. Hayden Stryker | ||
| 1937 | Topper | Wilkins | ||
| 1937 | Walter Wanger's Vogues of 1938 | Henry Morgan | ||
| 1937 | On Such a Night | Professor Ricardo Montrose Candle | ||
| 1937 | Music for Madame | Leon Rodowsky | ||
| 1937 | Stand-In | Koslofski | ||
| 1937 | Hollywood Hotel | Alexander Duprey | ||
| 1938 | Merrily We Live | Butler | ||
| 1938 | There Goes My Heart | Pennypepper E. Pennypepper | ||
| 1938 | Topper Takes a Trip | Wilkins | ||
| 1939 | Never Say Die | Prince Smirnov | ||
| 1939 | Way Down South | Jacques Bouton | ||
| 1939 | The Llano Kid | John Travers | ||
| 1940 | Music in My Heart | Charles Gardner | ||
| 1940 | Curtain Call | Donald Avery | ||
| 1940 | Scatterbrain | J.R. Russell | ||
| 1940 | The Boys from Syracuse | Angelo | ||
| 1940 | The Villain Still Pursued Her | Silas Cribbs | ||
| 1940 | The Quarterback | Professor Hobbs | ||
| 1941 | Footlight Fever | Mr. Don Avery | ||
| 1941 | That Hamilton Woman | Sir William Hamilton | ||
| 1941 | That Uncertain Feeling | Dr. Vengard | ||
| 1941 | The Cowboy and the Blonde | Phineas Johnson | ||
| 1941 | Ice-Capades | Pete Ellis | ||
| 1941 | Moon Over Her Shoulder | Grover Sloan | ||
| 1941 | I Wake Up Screaming | Robin Ray | ||
| 1941 | The Perfect Snob | Freddie Browning | ||
| 1942 | Yokel Boy | Movie Producer | ||
| 1942 | We Were Dancing | Grand Duke Basil | ||
| 1942 | The Mad Martindales | Hugo Martindale | ||
| 1942 | Panama Hattie | Jay Jerkins, Dick's Butler | ||
| 1942 | A Yank at Eton | Mr. Duncan | ||
| 1942 | Isle of Missing Men | Dr. Henry Brown | ||
| 1942 | The Devil with Hitler | Gesatan | ||
| 1943 | The Powers Girl | John Robert Powers | ||
| 1943 | Slightly Dangerous | English Gentleman | ||
| 1943 | Stage Door Canteen | Alan Mowbray | ||
| 1943 | So This Is Washington | Chester W. Marshall | ||
| 1943 | Holy Matrimony | Mr. Pennington | ||
| 1943 | His Butler's Sister | Buzz Jenkins | ||
| 1944 | The Doughgirls | Breckenridge Drake | ||
| 1944 | Ever Since Venus | J. Webster Hackett | ||
| 1944 | My Gal Loves Music | Rodney Spoonyer | ||
| 1945 | Bring on the Girls | August | ||
| 1945 | Earl Carroll Vanities | Grand Duke Paul | ||
| 1945 | The Phantom of 42nd Street | Cecil Moore | ||
| 1945 | Where Do We Go from Here? | General George Washington | ||
| 1945 | Tell It to a Star | Colonel Ambrose Morgan | ||
| 1945 | Men in Her Diary | Douglas Crane | ||
| 1945 | Sunbonnet Sue | Jonathan | ||
| 1946 | Terror by Night | |||
| 1946 | Idea Girl | J.C. Crow | ||
| 1946 | My Darling Clementine | Granville Thorndyke | ||
| 1947 | The Pilgrim Lady | Clifford Latimer | ||
| 1947 | Lured | Lyle Maxwell | ||
| 1947 | Merton of the Movies | Frank Mulvaney | ||
| 1947 | Captain from Castile | Prof. Botello | ||
| 1948 | The Main Street Kid | The Great Martine | ||
| 1948 | The Prince of Thieves | The Friar | ||
| 1948 | An Innocent Affair | Ken St. Clair | ||
| 1948 | My Dear Secretary | Deveny | Charles Martin | |
| 1948 | Every Girl Should Be Married | Mr. Spitzer | ||
| 1949 | The Lone Wolf and His Lady | Jamison, Lanyard's Valet | John Hoffman | |
| 1949 | The Lovable Cheat | Justin | ||
| 1949 | You're My Everything | Joe Blanton | ||
| 1949 | Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff | Melton | ||
| 1950 | Wagon Master | Dr. A. Locksley Hall | ||
| 1950 | The Jackpot | Leslie | ||
| 1951 | Dick Turpin's Ride | Lord Charles Willoughby | ||
| 1951 | Crosswinds | Sir Cecil Daubrey | ||
| 1952 | Just Across the Street | Davis | ||
| 1952 | Androcles and the Lion | Editor of Gladiators | Nicholas Ray (uncredited) | |
| 1952 | Blackbeard the Pirate | Noll | ||
| 1954 | Ma and Pa Kettle at Home | Alphonsus Mannering | ||
| 1954 | The Steel Cage | Lee Filbert | segment "The Chef" | |
| 1955 | The King's Thief | Sir Gilbert Talbot | Hugo Fregonese (uncredited) | |
| 1956 | The Man Who Knew Too Much | Val Parnell | ||
| 1956 | The King and I | Sir John Hay | ||
| 1956 | Around the World in 80 Days | the British Consul at Suez | ||
| 1956 | Once Upon a Honeymoon | Gordon | Short | |
| 1961 | A Majority of One | Captain Norcross | ||
The Beverly Hillbillies Season 7,Episode 1, September 25, 1968, A Bundle for Britain Episode 199. Played Montrose, hired by Mr Drysdale to pretend to be the queen of Englands financial servant..