Cedric Hardwicke

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Birthday:

19 February 1893, Lye, Worcestershire, England, UK

Birth Name:

Cedric Webster Hardwicke

Height:

175 cm

Sir Cedric Hardwicke, one of the great character actors in the first decades of the talking picture, was born in Lye, England on February 19, 1893. Hardwicke attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made his stage debut in 1912. His career was interrupted by military service in World War I, but he returned to the stage in 1922 with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, distinguishing himself as Caesar in George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, which was his ticket to the London stage. For his distinguished work on the stage and in films, he was knighted by King George V in 1934, a time when very few actors received such an honor.Hardwicke first performed on the American stage in 1936 and emigrated to the United States permanently after spending the 1948 season with the Old Vic. Hardwicke's success on stage and in films and television was abetted by his resonant voice and aristocratic bearing. Among the major films he appeared in were Les Misérables (1935), Stanley and Livingstone (1939), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), Suspicion (1941), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949), and The Ten Commandments (1956).His last film was The Pumpkin Eater (1964) in 1964. Cedric Hardwicke died on August 6, 1964 in New York City, New York. Show less «

I can't act. I have never acted. And I shall never act. What I can do is suspend my audience's power of judgement till I've finished.

I believe that God felt sorry for actors, so he created Hollywood to give them a place in the sun and a swimming pool. The price they had to...Show more »

I believe that God felt sorry for actors, so he created Hollywood to give them a place in the sun and a swimming pool. The price they had to pay was to surrender their talent. Show less «

Actors and burglars work better at night.

England is my wife. America is my mistress. It is very good sometimes to get away from one's wife.

[on TV commercials] The last refuge of optimism in a world of gloom.

[on sneak previews] Let one dim-witted schoolboy scrawl "lousy" on his card, and the entire studio may be stampeded the following morning in...Show more »

[on sneak previews] Let one dim-witted schoolboy scrawl "lousy" on his card, and the entire studio may be stampeded the following morning in an executive meeting to discuss slicing and revising the picture to shreds. On Hollywood's theory that the customer must know best, the schoolboy's "lousy" is regarded as the last word in dramatic criticism." Show less «

The director's tricks are accomplished by converting plays into spectacles of love, landscape, and lust, and the actors into puppets. Unhapp...Show more »

The director's tricks are accomplished by converting plays into spectacles of love, landscape, and lust, and the actors into puppets. Unhappily, a lot of young actors and actresses are destroyed in the process. They are drilled to perfection in a single role, while the director tries to produce performances by direction alone. As a result, they may be ruined for anything beyond the single role. Show less «

By temperament, a young actor needs to be mercurial, if nothing else, able to shed misfortunes like a duck shedding water and to magnify a p...Show more »

By temperament, a young actor needs to be mercurial, if nothing else, able to shed misfortunes like a duck shedding water and to magnify a pinpoint of hope into a golden dawn. Show less «

Actors must practice restraint else think what might happen in a love scene.

When actors are talking, they are servants of the dramatist. It is what they can show the audience when they are not talking that reveals th...Show more »

When actors are talking, they are servants of the dramatist. It is what they can show the audience when they are not talking that reveals the fine actor. Show less «

My aim is to leave the theater and the screen better than I found them.

I want to be one of those reformers. I am content to makes a virtue of necessity and modestly disclaim my desire to be a great reformer. I a...Show more »

I want to be one of those reformers. I am content to makes a virtue of necessity and modestly disclaim my desire to be a great reformer. I am resigned to be one of the myriad little ones; but I propose to be a very good little one. Show less «

I once heard Shaw [George Bernard Shaw] say there are two kinds of actors: those who are happy and confidant only in being themselves, and t...Show more »

I once heard Shaw [George Bernard Shaw] say there are two kinds of actors: those who are happy and confidant only in being themselves, and those who are timid and self-conscious and only at ease when they are able to take refuge in some character as far removed from themselves as possible. To the former, film acting is a joy; for the latter, it is difficult and disturbing. Show less «

[on his role in Sentimental Journey (1946)] I did nothing but look at the handsome bosom of Maureen O'Hara and listen to the murmuring of he...Show more »

[on his role in Sentimental Journey (1946)] I did nothing but look at the handsome bosom of Maureen O'Hara and listen to the murmuring of her heart through a stethoscope. Show less «

Hollywood may be thickly populated, but to me it's still a bewilderness.