Kenneth More, 67 CBE (1914-1982) actor

1950s and for several consecutive years Britain's biggest best loved and highest-paid film actor was Kenneth more he was in huge popular films like Genevieve doctrine the house and reached for the sky more charmed cinema goers with his irresistible exuberance and lovely comic touch came combined with solid dependability at the height of his popularity life seemed to be a world of show business premieres and parties with famous faces but an affair and then marriage to the actress Angela Douglas who was 26 years younger more damaged his public image and left him feeling abandoned by his friends and the film community after a few dry years he turned to television and a role in the BBC's the Forsyte Saga was two more surprise huge international hit and saw his fortunes and his popularity restored there was a quality about Kenneth Ward that seemed to embody that much use phrase best to British he admit he was never the best lovely star or even the best actor around but as is clear from his exchange with Michael Flanders the way he appealed to an audience was something he had considered very carefully in the late 40s you had to look like Stewart Granger to really succeed in the romantic roles you had to be tall and dark and thin you know what I mean when I call cigar-shaped the two kinds of actors this is cigar shape and there's the square shape I don't mean square emotion is melody I mean square shape I mean I'm a box I'm a square you know I'm not one of those and not a Rick's Alison now therefore I never got the romantic whirls now I had two assets to fall back on comedy and emotion now you can either women either want to be knocked off their feet by an actor they want to they want to be pulled into bed by by a romantic actor or they want to take that actor to bed themselves and come that's what I call the small boy line I knew that I stood much more chance in that direction than the cigar shape duration so I went for that more came into acting totally by Charles in the 1930s he found himself a job at the windmill Theatre in London Soho where famously girls would pose completely still and in the nude more fell in love with the place and would always look back on it with affection I started my career on that stage in that theatre and I spent two years of my life there first as a stagehand then as an actor in my own right until the theater closed I kept in close touch with the window even now after all these years I still have a feeling for the spilitt of the place a British institution or just another tacky little corner of Sir whatever it was it has a great story it has about it the stuff of life it wasn't desire to tread the boards that drew more to the windmill he was simply after a job as he explained here to Michael Parkinson and eventually one day with a hundred pounds in my pocket which my my kind mother gave me I was walking along Shastri Avenue and I sort the windmill theatre and I remembered the day I saw the name of the general manager Vivian van Damme and I remember a name it's called on my father man called Van Damme recalled on my father either through interest him in some business deal or other which didn't come off so I went to see him and I said can I have a job please and he said you Bertie more son I said yes I am you can start on Monday I said how much the two pounds in a week what what what you want to do I said anything he said she'll start by shifting scenery but then put you on to the electrics management theater manager asked me to become an advocate that is death and destruction so I started in the window I said what's my first job he said getting the news off the stage so I said what did he live on do you have new ladies yeah oh yes he said we have new and I was only 20 you know I thought sure they pay for this my first job was to rush on the stage in the black cab of the pilot light and hand the the girls their dressing gowns and get them off the stage because I was totally embarrassed absolutely splashed out and I never knew how to said popular all my school friends used to call him it twice a week say they pay you with the shovel Kenny how wonderful marry me oh it's a smile you in fact started your stage career there are such didn't you because I how do you get to appear or the windmill well I was a stagehand then I was an electrician and we had comedians who used to always borrow one or two stagehand to assist in the jokes in the game there and I one night they asked me if I'd be a policeman and all I had to do was to open the door and say your cars is that your car outside sir - Kym Douglas who's the comedian that was all I had to do now on the stage you must be well aware that you didn't put real glass and window frames you just have window friends but they're supposed to be gassed there the illusion that this class there but there isn't any gas so I thought why should I go to the door let's take my head to the window I forgot that it's supposed to be glass there so I just stuck my head with a policeman's helmet there's no car outside sir it brought the house down and ampere man said keep that in mr. wonderful joke and I tasted laughter stood the smell of the audience and I went to him one day and I said I'm sorry sir I want to become an actor will you forgive me after three years acting more join the Navy at the beginning of World War two and he found his surprise but he see his experience did actually open I was on a ship agents of war which is in every possible action but was gonna very valid captain and where he had to get where he went we had to go with him we had no say in it so it was tough in that respect but I learned an awful lot from from the war I know I was a better actor after the war and I was before I was given a very special job in my ship and that was the action commentator the action broadcaster whenever the ship went to action I was given a microphone and I had to stand on the back of the fridge and describe exactly what was happening if they were torpedo bombers coming on the portside I had to tell the truth because there's nothing worse than being in the engine room in a ship in action and you're hearing all these explosions going on you don't know what's going on now what now so I found my level and I found the stage helped me there because I and it didn't allow me to be nervous because if my voice was nervous then the whole ship was gonna be nervous below decks anyway so it kept me steady and I was always frightened I gave everybody else but I tried not to share it so I found my level through the theater and I did that damn well when the war ended you were 32 and you really had to start all over again I was very fortunate I was put onto a man called Harry Dubin who started an agency to represent actors from from the front from the war he wouldn't touch anybody else and I went very quickly into a little play called the crimson harvest at the gateway theatre which was a terrible melodrama and I had a fairly fairly Sheree little part and on the very first night Michael Barry who was to become such an influence later in television in this country saw me like my performance and took me up to the Alexander palace to put me on a short contract to play in players up there so I managed to get on my feet fairly quickly after the war Moore had plenty of success on the stage particularly in Terrence Ratigan's the deep blue sea it hoped the disappearance in Scott of the Antarctic would trigger an equally successful film career they didn't but it did lead to what became this big movie break well I did a test I did for Scott I had to test cuss being a sort of virtually unknown actor you have to do test well the man who did my test was not the director of the film that was Charlie friendly but the manager the test was another staff directory link called Henry Cornelius now we got the Escobar and I'm playing at the Duchess tear in the deep blue sea having made an enormous success I must admit and one night is one of strange looking man with thick glasses came in my room and I am I was waiting with the praised it didn't come and I said have you been our friend he said no no what's on ya I said oh he said now I have something under my arm which I'd like you to read and I said but why me if you haven't been out front you don't know about the deep disease you should know did I happen to do that test of you for Scott of the Antarctic which you you didn't do very well he said but I saw a couple of qualities in that test which I think would suit this character Ambrose Clara has in a film called Genevieve which I'm just about to start I'd like you to read the script take it home and if you want to play the part is yours Genevieve that was the big break I would lead to many many more roles today it's considered a much-loved comedy classic but that wasn't the case then as he would tell Tony Bilbo in 1980 I'm gonna do a rather jump in time to most successful films Genevieve I was interested to see from your book that in fact the critics weren't all that pleased Meryl and nor were the negatives in fact when they showed it to John Davis as the ranking band all their bigwigs in ranked they said no we must never show this is terrible it's a casting mistake but it proved the public to his heart and became almost enjoyable wonderful I suppose a real turning point in your career as a film star was reach for the sky the film about Douglas pada there again I was interested to discover that both Alexander Korda and Laurence Olivier no less thought you were absolutely mad to do it well I think that's right because David Lean had a film in mind for me called wind cannot read in India and it was a wonderful script and a wonderful would have made a wonderful film and working with a great David Lean is something and I turned it down because I didn't think the public would you set me after in a serious role after clabber house and what you just seen and in the doctor in the house so I turned it down and he never forgave me and Larry Olivia and called the bursa do you going to play man with no legs when you could play with David Lee except served that's the reason how did you actually get inside the part of God well I met Douglas I played a round of golf with him it and that's the way to learn about a man you know to take off with you at game Eagles and met he wants to try so dinner we're gonna Squire my old friend and he hated the film people he said I like you can you're alright you can do it with less than car they're all for but I managed to sort of I took to his character I warm towards him and then I thought he stood for because he's really a Rudyard Kipling feeling you never don't many men like that was bother hmm but it seems it's much much more than simply learning how to play well walk with no legs I mean I went to the limb centre in Putney and they made some artificial legs to go on my own and I remember Danny angel telling me that you must remember that your legs weigh a ton each everything is painful dragging your legs around if you haven't got any legs you still got your conscious of them all of time and when you appreciate that you cannot move this enormous weight below you you you more gave another comedy masterclass in his next hit admirable Crichton the film first came about thanks of the involvement of the legendary producer Alexander Korda of whom Moore was a huge admirer I loved him you see I believe this is a magic business and you've got to have magic personalities running it big big-hearted extravagant spendthrifts I don't believe it I don't like to see our industry run on on a shoestring I don't think I'll ever work I'd rather see it go down now quarter came into my life with big cigars and a marvelous Hungarian personality knitted Carmen Kearney should don't ever cigar and offer you want a footlong you know not a whiff you know and immediately you felt import I loved him he's a big warm-hearted marvelous sure man I'm sure he was a I mean I wouldn't trust him to the end of the garden part that didn't I didn't want to so he made me feel like a star that's what it was his idea was it that you should play in the admirable cracking well this is a very sad to the story he always wanted me to do the admirable crime because it was his favorite subjects I think largely because he owned the rights you know he wanted to use up the rights anyway and he wanted Lewis kill but who directed me in reach for sky he wanted us to do it together and we resisted it we said oh you can't possibly make a film by the admirable Crichton because Barry's book is really archaic when you read it today I mean really is you know it's awful by modern standards I mean but a marvelous story so we said there we no no no and then we were running through a scene in the dubbing theater of reach the sky when we were completing the picture and suddenly Lewis turned to me and he and I knew what he was gonna say he was gonna say let's bring up the old boy and tell him what do the admirable crime obviously you were got a winner here we picked up the telephone in the dubbing room we rang through to his house Millionaire's Row Kensington Palace Gardens and we said Mary speak to Alec please we got some good news for him and his housekeeper was secretary said I regret to tell you it's Alex died early this morning and it was like fate it was such a blow to us he put the phone down and we both looked each other and we knew right there and then that we were going to make the Abbeville crime for Ellis and we made it you say it was our cake but in fact for us to some extent just an another image of the times the part of the perfect butler who after Lord Liam's family were marooned on a desert island became their natural leaders a traditional master and man relationships were reversed I thought the dialogue in film script was rather frightened poor and the critics thought so too we didn't get a very good press on the other hand it was a great commercial success with the public because the story was so strong more knew a good story and he knew how to tell one too and that was a huge part of his popular appeal here he is again on Parkinson putting the audience and his hosts into a state of hysteria I remember I disgraced myself on that we had a green room there where you could Bob death happens to half a pint in those days nineteen thirty five six seven and we got paid on Friday nights on Monday we were broke whose canticles and all our money went into the green room yeah and why not explained in some melodrama which I had to sit on a garden bench and wait for my my lover my girlfriend to come on and greet me heaven from the war with a wounded leg in there one person so I was in the green room drinking beer when I should have been on the stage so all the barbells are pressed sand bears bears more weighs more for God's sake hormones on the ozone so I rushed up I've drawn my down my pints rushed up the stairs now as all beer drinkers know when you're standing still drinking beer at the bar you're quite all right I mean you're not gonna feel too bad you know when you start to move the water work stops so as I ran up the stairs to go on I felt my god I got I got to spend a penny I gotta go I got to have a pee I was too late so I grabbed my walking stick and I rent a high school stand on the stage with a terrible limp you know all this business went on i sat down I'm a garden bench and waiting for my lover to come in and I thought my god I'm doing it [Laughter] and it was my it was my gammy leg to that's gotta be I can't bend it because I've never keep the water in if I bend it but it's Canada there's a lovely warm feelings the stage Scott was very dirty and dusty so as it came out like something like the Nile Delta I love I love mad moments like I don't you know it's cool well it's never drank before a sheriff or the sheriff nothing at all no opera yeah I mentioned in my introduction there that you've come through that that period of fame and to become something of an institution actually in British entertainment does that have its drawbacks yes institution yes well I'll tell you the sort of drawbacks it has in Chelsea area I wanted to gentleman's leverage please like we are talking about reason I don't think there's one I use quite a bit every now and again and I pop in to do something and I was I went to my morning minding my own business is spending a penny there's nobody else in their talks at the little littles doorman reading The Times a little attendant and suddenly when I was standing up against the China peace I felt a tap on the shoulder oh my god not the time to be tapped on the shoulder is it looked honest attendant he said mr. Moore I said yes yes I told my wife you use my you Ronal I think when that haven't you become an institution being one of Brittany's biggest stars was quite enough for war he was never tempted to try and emulate his success in America despite several opportunities then I'd sort of top the British pills about five years running who want to whatever that meant I had a lot of offers from Hollywood but I had no desire to go there that particular type of film they were making in those days didn't attract me it was a very glossy product I had nothing for it it needed once again a cigar-shaped man rather than this British the day of the anti-hero hadn't arrived the day of the only moderately good-looking one and had barely arrived so I Holly would had nothing for me and I was done let's face it I had got my money up to something like forty thousand pounds a picture in England and that was a lot of money you know it's a lot of money I could have couldn't do much better in Hollywood so what was the point I loved living in England England's my home so I stayed here you did make one film with Jayne Mansfield and on his squire again the sheriff's a fractured jaw yeah but that wasn't made in America no that was made in Spain by a marvelous old western director called Raoul Walsh one I'd a real cowboy director it was a splendid idea the Edwardian gunsmith who travels West to sell guns to Cowboys funny I heard somewhere that you had lived about 15% of the dialogue of that film was that true well I say bit more you see Ron Walsh bless his heart was this a one eyed horse thief he's used to call didn't believe in dialogue actors who spoke lines or all her sissies I'm eating one like dad I've just held up the picture he was he wanted their horses and pistol fights and bar drinking scenes and he didn't want to bother with dialogue you had lived quite a lot of comedy there chewing helps generally not as much as you think you see the art of contemporary acting they always say one is choir going back to that dear man again is either you get no cups for comedy and it's very true but on the other hand realistic acting isn't as easy as it looks to be natural is perhaps the most difficult thing after all Shakespeare said it didn't hold up a mirror to nature held a mirror up to nature the tragedies survived the generations whereas the comedy is all our time exactly but the point is that when you say ad-lib when you make a thing look easy in the theatre or on the films or on television it is the contemporary actors ultimate object his altima aim if he's done that he's succeeded did you feel at any time that you were getting too much typecast in other laws and in films particularly there's like we're going back to the old argument about you know why because they don't want to change or your your image your personality but I was and your own assets as a person what are your main assets as an actor as a person as an actor but in your person too cause I think there's an actor I mean as it is it first of all I got a voice that people can hear which is rather important nowadays believe it or not secondly that I have confidence through experience thirdly that I am a very emotional person very very emotional who still believes in magic which i think is essential in the theatre and again I am an extrovert which I think is necessary I don't believe in introvert actors I can deal with situations as they arise and I have this gift I suppose I can only call it a gift because I was never conscious of it arriving off comedy timing which is which is really the basis of all acting because all lines have to be timed I suppose those are my assets my liabilities we won't go into those I can't imagine the time ever coming when we shall say I wonder what happened to Kenneth Moore well you you put it very nicely and now it's all over and you've stripped me bare as it were Michael I wonder what the verdict of my own profession will be I would like to hazard a guess same actor different clothes after several years struggling with Parkinson's disease Kenneth Moore died in 1982 aged 67 that jokey self assessment we just heard from him their same actor different clothes was typical of the man he may have won a BAFTA earned a CBE and even had a theater named in his honor but Kenneth Moore's most prized possession was his sense of humor and that's what made him so popular [Music]

Channel: George Pollen

Views: 134,170

Keywords: Kenneth More

Id: 3oQPBb7d6L4

Length: 23min 23sec (1403 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 05 2017