Roddy McDowall
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Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall (September 17, 1928–October 3, 1998) was a British actor.
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[edit] Early life
McDowall was born in London in Herne Hill to a Scottish father, Thomas Andrew McDowall, and an Irish mother, Winifred. Both his parents were enthusiastic about the theatre. He also had a sister, Virginia.
McDowall made his first film appearance at the age of twelve. It was as "Huw" in How Green Was My Valley (1941) that he made his name, and he appeared in many other films as a child actor, including The White Cliffs of Dover (1944) and Lassie Come Home (1943) where he co-starred (in what would be one of many occasions) opposite lifelong friend Elizabeth Taylor.
[edit] Career
McDowall was one of the few child actors to continue his career successfully into adulthood, but it was usually in character roles, notably in four of the five original Planet of the Apes movies (1968 – 1973) and the TV series that followed. Other film appearances included Cleopatra (1963), where he played Octavian, the later Emperor Augustus, It! (1966), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974), Class of 1984 (1982), Fright Night (1985) and Overboard (1987). He also appeared on stage and was a frequent guest star on television, appearing on such series as the original Twilight Zone, The Carol Burnett Show, Fantasy Island and Quantum Leap.
He played a character villain, "The Bookworm", in the camp 1960s TV series Batman and had an acclaimed recurring role as The Mad Hatter in Batman: The Animated Series. His final acting role in animation, if indeed not overall, was for an episode of Godzilla: The Series in the episode "Dreadloch".
During the 1990s, McDowall became active in film preservation and was active in the preserving of Cleopatra (1963), which had been severely cut by 20th Century Fox studio head Darryl F. Zanuck after skyrocketing production costs.
McDowall served for several years in various capacities on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization that presents the Oscar. He was Chairman of the Actor's Branch for five terms. He was elected President of the Academy Foundation the year he died.
[edit] Photographer
He received recognition as a photographer and published five books of photographs, one being of his celebrity friends such as Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, Judy Holliday, and Maureen O'Hara.
[edit] Private life
In 1974, the FBI raided the home of McDowall and seized the actor's collection of films and television series. His collection consisted of 160 16 mm prints and over 10,000 videocassettes (this was before the era of VCRs and VHS tapes). McDowall had bought Errol Flynn's home movies and the prints of his directorial debut Tam Lin (1970) starring Ava Gardner, and transferred them all to tape for longer-lasting archival storage.
McDowall was forthcoming about some of the individuals he had dealt with on the black market: Rock Hudson, Dick Martin, and Mel Torme were some of the celebrities that were interested in his creations. No charges were pressed against McDowall.
[edit] Death
McDowall died in Studio City, California from lung cancer at the age of 70, the guardian of many secrets (nefarious and otherwise) that Hollywood holds. One of his last public appearances was when he accompanied the then-88 year old actress, Luise Rainer, the earliest awardee of a Best Actress Oscar who attended that year's telecast, which featured all the living previous Oscar winners who were willing and able to attend (more than 70 did).
[edit] Filmography
- Yellow Sands (1938)
- Scruffy (1938)
- Sarah Siddons (1938)
- Murder in the Family (1938)
- Hey! Hey! USA (1938)
- I See Ice (1938)
- John Halifax (1938)
- Convict 99 (1938)
- Dirt (1939)
- The Outsider (1939)
- Poison Pen (1940)
- His Brother's Keeper (1940)
- Murder Will Out (1940)
- Dead Man's Shoes (1940)
- Just William (1940)
- Saloon Bar (1940)
- You Will Remember (1941)
- Man Hunt (1941)
- This England (1941)
- How Green Was My Valley (1941)
- Confirm or Deny (1941)
- Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake (1942)
- On the Sunny Side (1942)
- The Pied Piper (1942)
- My Friend Flicka (1943)
- Lassie Come Home (1943)
- The White Cliffs of Dover (1944)
- The Keys of the Kingdom (1944)
- Thunderhead - Son of Flicka (1945)
- Molly and Me (1945)
- Holiday in Mexico (1946)
- Rocky (1948)
- Macbeth (1948)
- Kidnapped (1948)
- Tuna Clipper (1949)
- Black Midnight (1949)
- Killer Shark (1950)
- Everybody's Dancin' (1950) (Cameo)
- Big Timber (1950)
- Screen Snapshots: Hollywood Goes to Bat (1950) (short subject)
- The Steel Fist (1952)
- The Subterraneans (1960)
- Midnight Lace (1960)
- The Longest Day (1962)
- Cleopatra (1963)
- Shock Treatment (1964)
- The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
- The Third Day (1965)
- The Loved One (1965)
- That Darn Cat! (1965)
- Inside Daisy Clover (1965)
- Lord Love a Duck (1966)
- The Defector (1966)
- It! (1966)
- The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin (1967)
- The Cool Ones (1967)
- Planet of the Apes (1968)
- 5 Card Stud (1968)
- Midas Run (1969)
- Hello Down There (1969)
- Angel, Angel, Down We Go (1969)
- Pretty Maids All in a Row (1971)
- Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
- Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
- Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
- The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
- The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972)
- The Legend of Hell House (1973)
- Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)
- Arnold (1973)
- Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974)
- Funny Lady (1975)
- Mean Johnny Barrows (1976)
- Embryo (1976)
- Sixth and Main (1977)
- Laserblast (1978)
- Rabbit Test (1978)
- The Cat from Outer Space (1978)
- Circle of Iron (1978)
- Nutcracker Fantasy (1979) (voice)
- The Black Hole (1979) (voice)
- Scavenger Hunt (1979)
- Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (1981)
- Evil Under the Sun (1982)
- Class of 1984 (1982)
- Zoo Ship (1985) (voice)
- Fright Night (1985)
- GoBots: War of the Rock Lords (1986) (voice)
- Dead of Winter (1987)
- Overboard (1987)
- Doin' Time on Planet Earth (1988)
- Fright Night II (1988)
- Heroes Stand Alone (1989)
- Cutting Class (1989)
- The Big Picture (1989)
- Shakma (1990)
- Going Under (1990)
- The Naked Target (1992)
- Double Trouble (1992)
- The Magical World of Chuck Jones (1992) (documentary)
- The Evil Inside Me (1993)
- Angel 4: Undercover (1993)
- The Color of Evening (1994)
- Mirror, Mirror 2: Raven Dance (1994)
- Star Hunter (1995)
- The Grass Harp (1995)
- Last Summer in the Hamptons (1995)
- The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen (1995) (documentary)
- It's My Party (1996)
- Mary Pickford: A Life on Film (1997) (documentary)
- The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli & Baloo (1997)
- When It Clicks (1998) (short subject)
- Something to Believe In (1998)
- A Bug's Life (1998) (voice)
- Keepers of the Frame (1999) (documentary)
[edit] Television Work
- The Tempest (1960)
- The Cricket on the Hearth (1967) (voice)
- The Legend of Robin Hood (1968)
- Night Gallery (1969) (pilot for series)
- Terror in the Sky (1971)
- A Taste of Evil (1971)
- What's a Nice Girl Like You...? (1971)
- Columbo: Short Fuse (1972)
- Topper Returns (1973) (unsold pilot)
- Miracle on 34th Street (1973)
- Black Day for Bluebeard (1974)
- The White Seal (1975) (voice)
- Flood! (1976)
- Mowgli's Brothers (1977) (voice)
- The Rhinemann Exchange (1977) (miniseries)
- The Fantastic Journey (1977) (canceled after 10 episodes)
- Supertrain - The Green Lady (1978)
- The Immigrants (1978)
- The Thief of Baghdad (1978)
- Hart to Hart (1979) (pilot for series)
- The Martian Chronicles (1980) (miniseries)
- The Memory of Eva Ryker (1980)
- The Return of the King (1980) (voice)
- The Million Dollar Face (1981)
- Mae West (1982)
- Tales of the Gold Monkey (1982-1983)
- This Girl for Hire (1983)
- The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood (1984)
- Hollywood Wives (1985) (miniseries)
- Alice in Wonderland (1985)
- Bridges to Cross (1986) (canceled after a few episodes)
- Remo Williams (1988) (unsold pilot)
- Around the World in Eighty Days (1989) (miniseries)
- The Pirates of Dark Water (1991-1992) (voice)
- The Sands of Time (1992)
- Heads (1993)
- Red Planet (1994) (miniseries)
- Hart to Hart: Home Is Where the Hart Is (1994)
- The Alien Within (1995)
- Dead Man's Island (1996)
- Unlikely Angel (1996)
- Loss of Faith (1997)
[edit] External links
Categories: 1928 births | 1998 deaths | American child actors | American film actors | American television actors | Quantum Leap actors | British voice actors | Lung cancer deaths | English child actors | English film actors | Gay actors | Hollywood Squares panelists | People of Irish descent in Great Britain | Naturalized citizens of the United States | Scottish-Americans | Tony Award winners