Robert Donat

Robert Donat

Birth : 1905-03-18, Withington, Manchester, England, UK

Death : 1958-06-09

History

Robert Donat (born Friedrich Robert Donat) was a star English film and stage actor. He is best remembered for his roles in The 39 Steps (1935) and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), the latter which earned him a Best Actor Academy Award.

Profile

Robert Donat
Robert Donat

Movies

1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
Self (archive footage)
This documentary focuses on 1939, considered to be Hollywood's greatest year, with film clips and insight into what made the year so special.
Hitchcock: The Early Years
Self (archive footage)
This documentary covers Hitchcock's early British career, up to his move to America in 1940.
Hollywood Out-takes and Rare Footage
Himself (archive footage)
Out-takes (mostly from Warner Bros.), promotional shorts, movie premieres, public service pleas, wardrobe tests, documentary material, and archival footage make up this star-studded voyeuristic look at the Golden age of Hollywood during the 30s, 40, and 50.
That's Entertainment, Part II
(archive footage)
Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
The Mandarin of Yang Cheng
All her life, Englishwoman Gladys Aylward knew that China was the place where she belonged. Not qualified to be sent there as a missionary, Gladys works as a domestic to earn the money to send herself to a poor, remote village. There she eventually lives a full and happy life: running the inn, acting as "foot inspector", advising the local Mandarin, and even winning the heart of mixed race Captain Lin Nan. But Gladys discovers her real destiny when the country is invaded by Japan and the Chinese children need her to save their lives. Based on a true story.
Lease of Life
Rev William Thorne
The parson of a small rural community knows he is dying and this makes him reconsider his life so far and what he can still do to help the community.
The Magic Box
William Friese-Greene
Now old, ill, poor, and largely forgotten, William Freise-Greene was once very different. As young and handsome William Green he changed his name to include his first wife's so that it sounded more impressive for the photographic portrait work he was so good at. But he was also an inventor and his search for a way to project moving pictures became an obsession that ultimately changed the life of all those he loved.
The Cure for Love
Producer
Sergeant Jack Hardacre returns from the war to his contemptible fiancée Janey Jenkins intending to reconcile with her against all odds. But he falls in love with a charming new lodger Milly Southern instead.
The Cure for Love
Writer
Sergeant Jack Hardacre returns from the war to his contemptible fiancée Janey Jenkins intending to reconcile with her against all odds. But he falls in love with a charming new lodger Milly Southern instead.
The Cure for Love
Director
Sergeant Jack Hardacre returns from the war to his contemptible fiancée Janey Jenkins intending to reconcile with her against all odds. But he falls in love with a charming new lodger Milly Southern instead.
The Cure for Love
Sergeant Jack Hardacre
Sergeant Jack Hardacre returns from the war to his contemptible fiancée Janey Jenkins intending to reconcile with her against all odds. But he falls in love with a charming new lodger Milly Southern instead.
The Winslow Boy
Sir Robert Morton
In pre-WW1 England, a youngster is expelled from a naval academy over a petty theft, but his parents raise a political furor by demanding a trial.
Captain Boycott
Charles Stewart Parnell
Based on real events, this historical drama is set in 19th-century Ireland, when poverty-stricken tenants dispossessed by greedy landowner Capt. Boycott (Cecil Parker) band together to assert their rights. Patriotic farmer Hugh Davin (Stewart Granger) leads the rebels. Choosing nonviolent resistance, the villagers ostracize their nemesis, who squanders his fortune to repair his ruined reputation and wagers what's left on a horse race.
Perfect Strangers
Robert Wilson
After World War II service changes them, a married couple dread their postwar reunion.
Twenty Years After
This short celebrates the 20th anniversary of MGM. Segments are shown from several early hits, then from a number of 1944 releases.
The Adventures of Tartu
Captain Terence Stevenson, aka Jan Tartu
British Captain Terence Stevenson (Robert Donat) accepts an assignment even more dangerous than his everyday job of defusing unexploded bombs. Fluent in Romanian and German and having studied chemical engineering, he is parachuted into Romania to assume the identity of Captain Jan Tartu, a member of the fascist Iron Guard. He makes his way to Czechoslovakia to steal the formula of a new Nazi poison gas and sabotage the factory where it is being manufactured.
The New Lot
Actor
A new batch of Army recruits, from diverse backgrounds and with varying degrees of commitment, is shaped into an efficient fighting unit.
The Young Mr. Pitt
William Pitt / The Earl of Chatham
This biopic tells the story of the life of Pitt The Younger, who became Prime Minister of Great Britain at the age of 24.
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
Self
This short documentary, presented and directed by MGM sound engineer Douglas Shearer, goes behind the scenes to look at how the sound portion of a talking picture is created.
Cavalcade of the Academy Awards
Self (archive footage)
This 1940 presentation features highlights of earlier (1928 onward) Oscar ceremonies including Shirley Temple and Walt Disney, plus acceptance speeches for films released in 1939 with recipients and presenters including Vivien Leigh, Judy Garland, Hattie McDaniel, Fay Bainter, Mickey Rooney, Thomas Mitchell, Sinclair Lewis, and more, with host Bob Hope.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Charles Edward Chipping aka 'Mr. Chips'
A shy British teacher looks back nostalgically at his long career, taking note of the people who touched his life.
The Citadel
Dr. Andrew Manson
Andrew Manson, a young, idealistic, newly qualified Scottish doctor arrives in Wales takes his first job in a mining town, and begins to wonder at the persistent cough many of the miners have. When his attempts to prove its cause are thwarted, he moves to London. His new practice does badly. But when a friend shows him how to make a lucrative practice from rich hypochondriacs, it will take a great shock to show him what the truth of being a doctor really is.
Knight Without Armour
Ainsley J. Fothergill / Peter Ouronov
British agent working in Russia is forced to remain longer than planned once the revolution begins. After being released from prison in Siberia he poses as a Russian Commissar. Because of his position among the revolutionaries, he is able to rescue a Russian countess from the Bolsheviks.
The Ghost Goes West
Murdoch Glourie / Donald Glourie
An American businessman's family convinces him to buy a Scottish castle and disassemble it to ship it to America brick by brick, where it will be put it back together. The castle though is not the only part of the deal, with it goes the several-hundred year old ghost who haunts it.
The 39 Steps
Richard Hannay
Richard Hanney has a rude awakening when a glamorous female spy falls into his bed - with a knife in her back. Having a bit of trouble explaining it all to Scotland Yard, he heads for the hills of Scotland to try to clear his name by locating the spy ring known as The 39 Steps.
The Count of Monte Cristo
Edmond Dantes
After greedy men have Edmound Dantes unjustly imprisoned for 20 years for innocently delivering a letter entrusted to him, he escapes to revenge himself on them.
Cash
Paul Martin
A formerly wealthy man and his daughter try to regain wealth by selling a scheme to some investors, when they come upon a huge amount of unclaimed cash that a young electrician has in his tool box.
The Private Life of Henry VIII
Thomas Culpeper
Renowned for his excess, King Henry VIII goes through a series of wives during his rule. With Anne Boleyn, his second wife, executed on charges of treason, King Henry weds maid Jane Seymour, but that marriage also ends in tragedy. Not one to be single for long, the king picks German-born Anne of Cleves as his bride, but their union lasts only months before an annulment is granted, and King Henry continues his string of spouses.
Men of Tomorrow
Julian Angell
In the years after his graduation Allen Shepherd has become a successful novelist and has married Jane Anderson. A firm proponent of traditional sex roles, Shepherd leaves Jane when she accepts a teaching post at Oxford. He later changes his views, and the couple is reunited.
That Night in London
Dick Warren
A young bank clerk steals £500 and plans to go on a spree before shooting himself but a bad girl turned good tries to convince him to return the money and stay alive