Ralph Forbes
Ralph Forbes (30 September 1904 – 31 March 1951)[1] was an English actor in the American cinema. He was also a noted stage actor.
Early life
He was born Ralph Forbes Taylor in London, England, the son of E.J. Taylor and actress Mary Forbes and brother of actress Brenda Forbes. He met with an accident on the football field at Denstone College, Staffordshire that resulted in a scar on his cheek. Unusually, he started off in films, then went on stage. In the United States he appeared onstage opposite actress Ruth Chatterton, who became his first wife.
Personal life
He married three times, first to actress Ruth Chatterton (who was 11 years his senior) from 1924 to 1932. He later married actress Heather Angel in 1934; that marriage also ended in divorce. His last wife was actress Dora Sayers (married 1946). Forbes dated Lucille Ball shortly before he married Angel. Ball turned down his marriage proposal.
Later years
His last years were given to working on the Broadway stage. One of his last stage appearances was in a revival of Shaw's You Never Can Tell in 1948. He died at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx in New York City in 1951, aged 46.
Selected filmography
- Comin' Thro the Rye (1923)
- Reveille (1924)
- Beau Geste (1926)
- Mr. Wu (1927)
- The Enemy (1927)
- The Actress (1928)
- The Trail of '98 (1928)
- The Green Goddess (1930)
- Mamba (1930)
- Lilies of the Field (1930)
- The Bachelor Father (1931)
- Smilin'Through (1932)
- Christopher Strong (1933)
- The Solitaire Man (1933)
- The Mystery of Mr. X (1934)
- Riptide (1934)
- The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934)
- Twentieth Century (1934)
- La Fiesta de Santa Barbara (1935)
- Streamline Express (1935)
- The Three Musketeers (1935)
- I'll Name the Murderer (1936)
- Mary of Scotland (1936)
- Romeo and Juliet (1936)
- Daniel Boone (1936)
- The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (1937)
- Convicts at Large (1938)
- The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939)
- The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex (1939)
- The Magnificent Fraud (1939)
- Tower of London (1939)
- Curtain Call (1940)
- Calling Philo Vance (1940)
- Frenchman's Creek (1944)
References
- ↑ Per UK Civil Registration records, Ralph Forbes Taylor was born in 1904. There has always been some question as to his purported 1896 year of birth as his mother would have been 16 years old at that time.
- Birth:
- Name: TAYLOR, Ralph Forbes
- Registration District: Wandsworth
- County: London
- Year of Registration: 1904
- Quarter of Registration: Oct-Nov-Dec
- Mother's Maiden Name: Not available before 1911 Q3
- Volume No: 1D, Page No: 689
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ralph Forbes. |
- Ralph Forbes at the Internet Movie Database
- Ralph Forbes at the Internet Broadway Database
- Ralph Forbes at Find a Grave
- Ralph Forbes at Virtual History
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