Henry Daniell - Hollywood

Hollywood

Daniell appeared as Professor Moriarty in the Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce Sherlock Holmes film The Woman in Green (1945). He appeared in other films such as Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator (1940) (he played Garbitsch, a parody of Joseph Goebbels), and The Body Snatcher (1945, with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi) - as well as two other films in the Sherlock Holmes/Basil Rathbone series: The Voice of Terror (1942) and Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943) with fellow Moriarty George Zucco.

He played the sleazy Count de Varville opposite Greta Garbo in Camille (1936). Another early triumph was his portrayal of Cecil in The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939). But he is perhaps best remembered for his role as the treacherous Lord Wolfingham (no relation to Francis Walsingham) in The Sea Hawk (1940). Here, he fought Errol Flynn in one of the most spectacular swordfighting duels ever filmed. When Michael Curtiz cast him in this film, Henry Daniell initially refused because he couldn't fence. Curtiz accomplished the climactic duel by imaginative use of shadows from candlelight with a double fencing Flynn with ingenious inter-cutting of their faces.

Towards the end of World War II, he appeared in one of his most memorable film roles, as the cruel Henry Brocklehurst in Jane Eyre (1944), opposite Joan Fontaine who played Eyre. In the 1950s and 1960s, he did much television, and memorably appeared as the malevolent Dr. Emil Zurich in Edward L. Cahn's The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959), and in perhaps the most famous episode of Maverick, "Pappy" opposite James Garner the same year. An absolute professional, he was always on the set when needed, and impatient when delays in filming took place. Much in demand for his dry, sardonic delivery, Daniell moved easily from big-budget films, such as Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), to television without difficulty. In 1957, Daniell appeared as King Charles II of England in the NBC anthology series The Joseph Cotten Show in the episode "The Trial of Colonel Blood", with Michael Wilding in the title role. In the same year he played second chair to Charles Laughton's lead counsel in Witness for the Prosecution (1957 film).

His last role was a small uncredited appearance as the British Ambassador in the 1964 film My Fair Lady directed by his old friend George Cukor. Although it is often assumed that Daniell is merely a background player in the film and had no lines, he does speak and is, in fact, very noticeable, especially to fans who remember him from his old films. The scene in which he appears takes place at the embassy ball. He is seen as Eliza arrives and when introduced to her shakes her hand and says "Miss Doolittle." Later, Daniell presents Eliza to the Queen of Transylvania with the one line, "Miss Doolittle, ma'am." In the commentary on the DVD, at the moment he appears on-screen in the role, it is mentioned that the day he shot the scene was "his last day on earth", as he died from a heart attack that very evening on 31 October 1963 in Santa Monica, California.