Michael Hordern

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Michael Hordern bigraphy, stories - English actor, radio personality

Michael Hordern : biography

3 October 1911 – 2 May 1995

Sir Michael Murray Hordern, CBE (3 October 19112 May 1995) was an English actor, knighted in 1983 for his services to the theatre.

Personal life

Hordern was born in The Poplars, an 18th-century townhouse in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, the son of Margaret Emily (Murray) and Capt. Edward Joseph Calverly Hordern. He was educated at Brighton College, as was his brother Peter. He acted at school and then as an amateur with the St Pancras People’s Theatre. He worked as a school teacher and travelling salesman before entering the profession. In 1937, he made his professional stage debut at the People’s Palace, East London, playing a minor role in Othello and, later in the year, joined the repertory company of the Little Theatre in Bristol. There he met the actress Grace Eveline Mortimer; they married in 1943 and remained together until her death in 1986. They had one daughter, Joanna.

During World War II Hordern served on HMS Illustrious, in Operation Ironclad in 1942 and later as a Lt.-Commander in the office of the first Sea Lord. After the war he has a brief appearance in the 1960 film Sink the Bismarck! as Admiral John Tovey, 1st Baron Tovey, Commander-in-Chief, HMS King George V.

Filmography

  • A Girl Must Live (1939)
  • Girl in the News (1940)
  • The Years Between (1946)
  • School for Secrets (1946)
  • A Girl in a Million (1948)
  • Night Beat (1947)
  • The Small Voice (1947)
  • Third Time Lucky (1948)
  • Portrait from Life (1948)
  • Good-Time Girl (1948)
  • Passport to Pimlico (1949)
  • Train of Events (1949)
  • The Astonished Heart (1950)
  • Trio (1950)
  • Highly Dangerous (1950)
  • Flesh & Blood (1951)
  • The Magic Box (1951)
  • Scrooge (1951)
  • Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1951)
  • The Card (1952)
  • The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952)
  • The Hour of 13 (1952)
  • Street Corner (1953)
  • Grand National Night (1953)
  • Personal Affair (1953)
  • The Heart of the Matter (1953)
  • You Know What Sailors Are (1954)
  • The Beachcomber (1954)
  • Forbidden Cargo (1954)
  • Svengali (1954)
  • Storm Over the Nile (1955)
  • The Dark Avenger (1955)
  • The Constant Husband (1955)
  • The Night My Number Came Up (1955)
  • Alexander the Great (1956)
  • The Man Who Never Was (1956)
  • The Spanish Gardener (1956)
  • Pacific Destiny (1956)
  • The Baby and the Battleship (1956)
  • No Time for Tears (1957)
  • Windom’s Way (1957)
  • I Accuse! (1958)
  • The Spaniard’s Curse (1958)
  • I Was Monty’s Double (1958)
  • Girls at Sea (1958)
  • Sink the Bismarck! (1960)
  • Malaga (1960)
  • Man in the Moon (1960)
  • El Cid (1961)
  • Cleopatra (1963)
  • The V.I.P.s (1963)
  • Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow (1963)
  • The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964)
  • Genghis Khan (1965)
  • The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
  • A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)
  • Cast a Giant Shadow (1966)
  • Khartoum (1966)
  • The Taming of the Shrew (1967)
  • The Jokers (1967)
  • How I Won the War (1967)
  • I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname (1967)
  • Prudence and the Pill (1968)
  • Where Eagles Dare (1968)
  • The Bed Sitting Room (1969)
  • Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)
  • Futtocks End (1970)
  • Some Will, Some Won’t (1970)
  • Girl Stroke Boy (1971)
  • Up Pompeii (1971)
  • The Possession of Joel Delaney (1972)
  • The Pied Piper (1972)
  • Demons of the Mind (1972)
  • Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1972)
  • Theatre of Blood (1973)
  • The MacKintosh Man (1973)
  • England Made Me (1973)
  • Juggernaut (1974)
  • Royal Flash (1975)
  • The Old Curiosity Shop (1975)
  • Barry Lyndon (1975)
  • Lucky Lady (1975)
  • The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella (1976)
  • Joseph Andrews (1977)
  • Watership Down (1978)
  • The Medusa Touch (1978)
  • The Wildcats of St Trinian’s (1980)
  • Ivanhoe (1982)
  • The Missionary (1982)
  • Gandhi (1982)
  • Yellowbeard (1983)
  • The Wind in the Willows (1983)
  • Comrades (1986)
  • Lady Jane (1986)
  • Labyrinth (1986)
  • Suspicion (1987)
  • The Trouble with Spies (1987)
  • The Secret Garden (1987)
  • Diamond Skulls (1989)
  • The Fool (1990)
  • Freddie as F.R.O.7 (1992)