Roddy McDowall

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FAMpeople
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Roddy McDowall : biography

17 September 1928 – 3 October 1998
  • The Pirates of Dark Water (1991) voice of Niddler (original Fox Kids broadcast)
  • An Inconvenient Woman (1991)
  • Timmy’s Gift: A Precious Moments Christmas (1991) (voice) – Narrator
  • The Pirates of Dark Water (1991–92) (voice)
  • The Sands of Time (1992)
  • Quantum Leap – (Season 4 – "A Leap for Lisa") (1992)
  • Heads (1993)
  • SWAT Kats (1993–95) as Lenny Ringtail/Madkat (voice)
  • The Tick (1994) (voice-Breadmaster)
  • Red Planet (1994) (miniseries)
  • Batman: The Animated Series (1994) as Jervis Tetch/The Mad Hatter (voice)
  • Hart to Hart: Home Is Where the Hart Is (1994)
  • The Alien Within (1995)
  • Pinky and the Brain (1995–98) as Snowball (voice)
  • Tracey Takes On… (1996)
  • Dead Man’s Island (1996)
  • Unlikely Angel (1996)
  • Gargoyles (1996–97) as Proteus (voice)
  • Loss of Faith (1997)
  • Behind the Planet of the Apes (1998)
  • Ellery Queen

Stage

  • Misalliance (1953)
  • Escapade (1953)
  • No Time for Sergeants (1955)
  • Good as Gold (1957)
  • Compulsion (1957)
  • Handful of Fire (1958)
  • Look After Lulu (1959)
  • The Fighting Cock (1959)
  • Camelot (1960)
  • The Astrakhan Coat (1967)
  • Charlie’s Aunt (1975)
  • A Christmas Carol: The Musical (1997)

Early life and career

McDowall was born at 204 Herne Hill Road, Herne Hill, London, the son of Winsfriede Lucinda (née Corcoran), an Irish-born aspiring actress, and Thomas Andrew McDowall, a merchant seaman of Scottish descent.http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-roddy-mcdowall-1176240.html Both of his parents were enthusiastic about the theatre. He had an older sister, Virginia, who was a sometime actress.

After McDowall had appeared in several British films, his family moved to the United States of America in 1939 because of the outbreak of World War II in Britain. McDowall apparently resided in the United States for the rest of his life. He never married.

He made his first well-known film appearance at the age of 12, playing "Huw Morgan" in How Green Was My Valley (1941). This role made him a household name. He starred in Lassie Come Home (1943), a film that introduced a girl who would become his lifelong friend — Elizabeth Taylor. He then appeared as Ken McLaughlin in the 1943 film My Friend Flicka. McDowall went on to appear in several other films, including The Keys of the Kingdom (1944) and The White Cliffs of Dover (1944). In 1944 exhibitors voted him the number four "star of tomorrow".