Robert Newton - Career

Career

Newton was born in Shaftesbury, Dorset, a son of landscape painter Algernon Newton, R.A. He was educated in Lamorna near Penzance, Cornwall, and later at St Bartholomew's School in Newbury, Berkshire. His acting career began at the age of 16 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1921 and he followed this by performing in many plays in the West End of London, including Bitter Sweet by Noël Coward. He also appeared in Private Lives on Broadway taking over the role from his friend Laurence Olivier. From 1932 to 1934 he was the manager of the Shilling Theatre in Fulham, London. In 1939 he played Horatio to Laurence Olivier's Hamlet at the Old Vic - the production also included Alec Guinness and Michael Redgrave. During the war he starred in the West End in No Orchids for Miss Blandish. His final performance on stage was in the 1950 production of Gaslight with Rosamund John at the Vaudeville Theatre.

During World War II, Newton served in the Royal Navy on board HMS Britomart, which served as an escort ship on several Russian convoys, as well as starring in a number of notable films. His film career included various ruffians and villains — such as Bill Walker in George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara (1941) and Long John Silver in Walt Disney's Treasure Island (1950), and the villanous Bill Sikes in David Lean's 1948 film version of Oliver Twist, and the acid bath murderer Dr. Clive Riordan in Obsession (1949). There were also interesting exceptions which showed his acting versatility. In Alfred Hitchcock's film Jamaica Inn, he played a virtuous law-officer who is alert, benevolent, serious, dedicated, professional, gallant, and calm in the face of danger, modest and altogether unlike Long John Silver. He also portrayed disciplinarians such as Inspector Javert in the 1952 Les Misérables, Dr. Arnold in the 1951 film version of Tom Brown's Schooldays, and Inspector Fix in his last film, Around the World in 80 Days (1956), which won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Newton appeared in major roles in two films based on the novella The Vessel of Wrath by W. Somerset Maugham. He played the Dutch contrôleur in the 1938 version (released in the U.S. as The Beachcomber), and the lead role of Edward "Ginger Ted" Wilson in The Beachcomber (1954). He starred as the Scottish hatter, James Brodie, in Hatter's Castle, a 1941 film based on the novel by A. J. Cronin. He also played Ancient Pistol in Laurence Olivier's 1944 film of Henry V and Lukey in Carol Reed's Odd Man Out; this performance was later immortalised in Harold Pinter's play Old Times. A good example of Newton playing a sympathetic lead role is Noël Coward's This Happy Breed directed by David Lean in 1944.

He again played Long John Silver in a 1954 Australian-made film, Long John Silver. It was shot at Pagewood Studios, Sydney and directed by Byron Haskin, who had directed Treasure Island. The company went on to make a 26-episode 1955 TV series, The Adventures of Long John Silver, in which Newton also starred.

With his strong West Country accent, Newton portrayed Bristol's other famous pirate Blackbeard the Pirate, but was never able to shake off the legacy of Long John Silver.