Cedric Hardwicke
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| Cedric Hardwicke | |
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 The program for Don Juan in Hell starring Cedric Hardwicke.
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| Born | 19 February 1893 Lye, Worcestershire, England |
| Died | 6 August 1964 New York, New York, USA |
Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke (February 19, 1893 - August 6, 1964) was an English actor. He was born in the village of Lye, then in Worcestershire.
He trained at RADA, and, after service in World War I, he joined a repertory company in Birmingham, and played many classical roles on stage before beginning a film career which included both British and Hollywood films.
He made his name on the stage performing works by George Bernard Shaw, who said that Hardwicke was his fifth favorite actors after the four Marx Brothers. Hardwicke starred in such Shavian works as Caesar and Cleopatra, Pygmalion, The Apple Cart, Candida, Too True to Be Good, and Don Juan in Hell, making such an impression that he became one of the youngest actors to be knighted in 1934 at the age of 41. Other stage successes included The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse, Antigone and A Majority of One, winning a Tony Award nomination for his performance as a Japanese diplomat.
Despite having played in such film classics as Les Misérables (1935), King Solomon's Mines (1937), The Winslow Boy (1948) and Olivier's Richard III (1955), Hardwicke is now remembered chiefly for his role as King Arthur in the comedy/musical, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949), singing We're Busy Doing Nothing in a trio with Bing Crosby and William Bendix and for his portrayal of the Pharaoh Seti I in Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 film The Ten Commandments. He also played Dr. David Livingstone opposite Spencer Tracy's Henry M. Stanley in the 1939 film classic, Stanley and Livingstone. And he was memorable as the evil Claude Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939 film), with Charles Laughton as Quasimodo.
Hardwicke's son is the actor Edward Hardwicke, who became well-known for playing Dr. Watson on British television in the 1980s and 1990s.
Hardwicke was knighted in 1934. He died at the age of 71 in New York City.
[edit] Memorial
Hardwicke is remembered by a sculpture by Tim Tolkien at Lye, commissioned by Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council. The memorial takes the form of a giant filmstrip, the illuminated cut metal panels illustrating scenes from some of Sir Cedric's best-known roles, which include The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Things to Come, and The Ghost of Frankenstein. It was unveiled in November 2005.
