Robert Donat
Acting
Biography
Robert Donat (born Friedrich Robert Donat) was a star English film and stage actor. He is best remembered for his roles in The 39 Steps (1935) and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), the latter which earned him a Best Actor Academy Award.
Born: March 18, 1905
Place of Birth: Withington, Manchester, England, UK
Known For
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
This documentary focuses on 1939, considered to be Hollywood's greatest year, with film clips and insight into what made the year so special.
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Over several decades throughout the late 19th-century and early 20th-century, Mr Arthur Chipping rises from a shy, nervous teacher to the beloved, revered headmaster of Brookfield School, with his life and career shaped by his love for his wife and his unwavering dedication to his students.
Lease of Life
The parson of a small rural community knows he is dying and this makes him reconsider his life so far and what he can still do to help the community.
The 39 Steps
Richard Hanney has a rude awakening when a glamorous female spy falls into his bed - with a knife in her back. Having a bit of trouble explaining it all to Scotland Yard, he heads for the hills of Scotland to try to clear his name by locating the spy ring known as The 39 Steps.
That's Entertainment, Part II
Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire present more golden moments from the MGM film library, this time including comedy and drama as well as classic musical numbers.
The Winslow Boy
In pre-WW1 England, a youngster is expelled from a naval academy over a petty theft, but his parents raise a political furor by demanding a trial.
Captain Boycott
Based on real events, this historical drama is set in 19th-century Ireland, when poverty-stricken tenants dispossessed by greedy landowner Capt. Boycott (Cecil Parker) band together to assert their rights. Patriotic farmer Hugh Davin (Stewart Granger) leads the rebels. Choosing nonviolent resistance, the villagers ostracize their nemesis, who squanders his fortune to repair his ruined reputation and wagers what's left on a horse race.
The Inn of the Sixth Happiness
All her life, Englishwoman Gladys Aylward knew that China was the place where she belonged. Not qualified to be sent there as a missionary, Gladys works as a domestic to earn the money to send herself to a poor, remote village. There she eventually lives a full and happy life: running the inn, acting as "foot inspector", advising the local Mandarin, and even winning the heart of mixed race Captain Lin Nan. But Gladys discovers her real destiny when the country is invaded by Japan and the Chinese children need her to save their lives. Based on a true story.
The Count of Monte Cristo
After greedy men have Edmound Dantes unjustly imprisoned for 20 years for innocently delivering a letter entrusted to him, he escapes to revenge himself on them.
A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound
This short documentary, presented and directed by MGM sound engineer Douglas Shearer, goes behind the scenes to look at how the sound portion of a talking picture is created.
Filmography
as Self (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage) (uncredited)
as (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as Self (archive footage)
as The Mandarin of Yang Cheng
as Rev William Thorne
as William Friese-Greene
as Sergeant Jack Hardacre
as Sir Robert Morton
as Charles Stewart Parnell
as Robert Wilson
as (archive footage)
as Captain Terence Stevenson, aka Jan Tartu
as Actor
as William Pitt / The Earl of Chatham
as Self (archive footage)
as Charles Edward Chipping aka 'Mr. Chips'
as Dr. Andrew Manson
as Ainsley J. Fothergill / Peter Ouronov
as Murdoch Glourie / Donald Glourie
as Richard Hannay
as Edmond Dantes
as Paul Martin
as Thomas Culpeper
as Julian Angell
as Dick Warren