Oscar Profile #147: C. Aubrey Smith

Born July 1, 1863 in London, England, Charles Aubrey Smith, known professionally as C. Aubrey Smith, was educated at Cambridge University where he was a member of the cricket team. Moving to South Africa in 1888 to prospect for gold, he developed pneumonia and was pronounced dead from the malady that would actually kill him sixty years later.

Turning to acting, he made his Broadway debut in 1895; married his wife Isabelle in 1896, a union that would last until his death. That same year he played the dual lead roles in The Prisoner of Zenda, the most successful film version of which he would play a key supporting role in forty-one years later

Smith made his film debut as the star of four silent films made in the U.S. in 1915 and 1916. He returned to England to make five more as a star between 1918 and 1924, but returned to the U.S. in character roles beginning later that year.

Smith, an imposing figure at 6’4” with his trademark handlebar mustache, was the epitome of the British gentleman, a role he played to the hilt both on and off the screen.

Among Smith’ outstanding screen appearances were his portrayals of Marion Davies’ unconventional father in 1931’s The Bachelor Father; Maureen OSullivan’s father in 1932’s Tarzan the Ape Man; the Duke in 1932’s Love Me Tonight; the old actor in 1933’s Morning Glory; the Duke of Wellington in 1934’s The House of Rothschild; Prince August in 1934’s The Scarlet Empress; Major Hamilton in 1935’s The Lives of a Bengal Lancer; the Earl of Dorincourt in 1936’s Little Lord Fauntleroy; Father Roubier in 1936’s The Garden of Allah; Col. Zapt in 1937’s The Prisoner of Zenda; Father Paul in 1937’s The Hurricane; General Burroughs in 1939’s The Four Feathers; Col. Julyan in 1940’s Rebecca; the Duke in 1940’s Waterloo Bridge; Lord Kelvin in 1943’s Madame Curie and Col, Forsythe in 1944’s The White Cliffs of Dover.

Having played a member of the British aristocracy for so long, Smith was made a knight of the British Empire himself in 1944 for his services to Anglo-American amity, after which he was usually billed as Sir C. Aubrey Smith. Films under that billing included his Gen. Mandrake in 1945’s And Then There Were None; Col. Graham in 1946’s Cluny Brown; Lord Chief Justice in 1947’s Unconquered; Earl of Caversham in 1947’s An Ideal Husband and Mr.Lawrence in 1949’s Little Women, which was released posthumously.

Sir C. Aubrey Smith died on December 20, 1948 of pneumonia at the age of 85. Although he had no children of his own, he was the adoptive father of every transplanted Brit in Hollywood. Although he never received an Oscar nomination for any of his marvelous performances, few would argue that he didn’t deserve consideration for at least four of them, those in Morning Glory; Little Lord Fauntleroy; The Hurricane and The Four Feathers.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

MORNING GLORY (1933), directed by Lowell Sherman

Remembered as the film for which Katharine Hepburn received her first Oscar as an aspiring actress, Smith provides a sympathetic portrait of a once popular actor reduced to playing minor roles in his old age, something Smith himself would never have to do. Although he would most often play key supporting roles in his films, he would play the occasional lead in a film and at the opposite end of the spectrum play a walk-on, but even in those he was highly recognizable and drew smiles from audiences world-wide.

LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY (1936), directed by John Cromwell

Freddie Bartholomew is the son of a recently deceased British lord who inherits his father’s title and is sent for by his cold and bitter grandfather, played by Smith who had disowned his son when he married an American (Dolores Costello). The child is allowed access to everything in the old man’s mansion but his mother must live in separate house on the estate. Eventually the inevitable happens and they all live happily ever after. Getting there, though, is all the fun with Smith dominating every scene he’s in. The splendid supporting cast includes Guy Kibbee, Henry Stephenson, Mickey Rooney, Constance Collier, E.E. Clive, Una O’Connor and Jessie Ralph.

THE HURRICANE (1937), directed by John Ford

There were no Oscars for Special Effects in 1937 or The Hurricane would surely have won. The film did win an Oscar for Best Sound and additional nominations for Best Score and Supporting Actor Thomas Mitchell. Mitchell was good as a drunken doctor, but the best performances in the film were those of Smith as the island priest and Mary Astor as the liberal wife of conservative island governor Raymond Massey. Smith and Astor, who were also together in the same year’s The Prisoner of Zenda are especially moving in the scene in which they are tied to trees in the hope that the hurricane won’t sweep them out to sea.

THE FOUR FEATHERS (1939), directed by Zoltan Korda

Smith played the prototypical Englishman better than anyone and here he is at his best as the curmudgeonly old general who likes to tell the same war stories over and over. The film boasts vivid color cinematography, which was justly nominated for an Oscar but lost to Gone With the Wind.

The classic tale of bravery and cowardice has been filmed numerous times but never better than in this version starring John Clements, Ralph Richardson, June Duprez and Smith.

AND THEN THERE WERE NONE (1945), directed by René Clair

René Clair’s delicious film version of Agatha Christie’s classic novel remains the best of several versions of the one-of-a-kind whodunit in which ten people are invited to an isolated island and one by one are murdered. Louis Hayward and June Duprez are the romantic leads, but the film’s success is thanks to its brilliant character actors who include Walter Huston, Barry Fitzgerald, Roland Young, Judith Anderson, Richard Haydn and of course, the newly minted Sir C. Aubrey Smith.