 Born Herbert Brough Falcon Marshall May 23, 1890 - January 22, 1966 | An Actual and Virtual HeroOne of the most sought-after leading men of the 1930s, Herbert Marshall began his acting career as a stage actor and didn't turn to film until he was nearly 40. Marshall was born in London and worked as an accountant before joining the London-Scots Guard to fight in the First World War. He served with (later) fellow actor Ronald Coleman in France and was badly wounded in 1915, resulting in the amputation of his right leg at the right hip. Herbert Marshall wore a wooden prosthetic for all of his acting career, something very few people knew at the time, because honestly, he hid it well. His acting style was quiet and easy, which enabled him to play both charming romantic heroes as well as calculating villains. By the mid-1940s he was getting decent, if smaller parts and eventually settled into a solid career as a character lead in films and television for another 20 years. Suave, handsome, sympathetic on screen, Marshall seems to have had a more turbulent personal life -- let's face it, the man was married five times. But what do I know? I would prefer him to have been a decent guy with perhaps a shortish attention span, because I loved him in Trouble in Paradise, so let's just go with that. Herbert Marshall died of heart failure on January 22, 1966 in Beverly Hills. He was 75 years old. Favorite Five
Charming the Panel on What's My Line? in 1954 |
RSS Feed
