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Friedrich Robert Donath (March 18, 1905 – June 9, 1958), better known by his stage name Robert Donat, was a distinguished English film and stage actor of English, Polish and German descent. He was born in Withington, Manchester and died in London, England.

Donat made his first stage appearance in 1921 and his film debut in 1932 in Men of Tomorrow. His first great screen success came with The Private Life of Henry VIII (playing Thomas Culpepper), under the renowned film director and producer Alexander Korda. He had a successful screen image as an English gentleman who was neither haughty nor common. That made him something of a novelty in British films at the time, and he was likened by critics to Hollywood's Clark Gable and Gary Cooper. His most successful films included The Ghost Goes West (1935), Hitchcock's The 39 Steps (1935) and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939). For the latter, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, beating Gable, who had been nominated for his role as Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind.

However, he suffered from ill-health (chronic asthma) which blighted his career and limited him to nineteen films. His final role, as the mandarin of "Yang Cheng" in The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958) is memorable because it is apparent that he knew that he was close to death. He died of an asthma attack on June 9 of that year at age 53.

Donat was twice married, first to Ella Annesley Voysey (1929-1946), by whom he had 3 children, and subsequently to British actress Renée Asherson (1953-1958).

Filmography

• Men of Tomorrow (1932)
• That Night in London (1932)
• Cash (1933)
• The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)
• The Count of Monte Cristo (1934) (as Edmond Dantès, the eponymous Count)
• The 39 Steps (1935)
• The Ghost Goes West (1936)
• Knight Without Armour (1937)
• The Citadel (1938) (earned an Oscar nomination for his performance)
• Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) (for which he won an Academy Award)
• The Young Mr. Pitt (1942)
• The Adventures of Tartu (1943)
• Perfect Strangers (1945)
• Captain Boycott (1947)
• The Winslow Boy (1948) (as Sir Robert Morton KC)
• The Cure for Love (1950)
• The Magic Box (1951) (as William Friese-Greene, “the forgotten inventor of movies”)
• Lease of Life (1955)
• The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958)

External links

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