Early Career
In 1930 Jones was studying law at University College London when Kenneth Barnes, the Principal of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, noticed him in a student performance and offered him a career as an actor. His first professional engagement was in Carpet Slippers at the Embassy Theatre, Swiss Cottage, in 1930, while still at RADA. He won the annual RADA Gold Medal in 1932. His first West End production was Vile Bodies at the Vaudeville and Richard of Bordeaux (in which he appeared with John Gielgud) at the New. In the following year he appeared with Laurence Olivier in The Rats of Norway. He made a success as "Caryl Sanger" with Elizabeth Bergner in Escape Me Never.
In 1932 he also made his film debut, in The Faithful Heart, and he continued to appear in British films throughout the 1930s. In 1940 he joined the army, but spent most of World War II in a touring concert party, returning to the West End in 1945 to star in Lady Windermere's Fan.
Read more about this topic: Griffith Jones (actor)
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