Educated in England and Germany, his first professional theatrical appearance was with the F.R. Benson company at
Stratford-upon-Avon in 1909 as Douglas in
Henry IV, Part 2, followed later that year with his London debut. Other roles he played during his stage career included Feste in
Twelfth Night,
Ulysses S. Grant in
Abraham Lincoln, Peter Dais in
North of the Moon, Petruchio in
The Taming of the Shrew' (during his late forties in the late 1920s), and several of
George Bernard Shaw's plays (including
The Apple Cart). His stage experience of Shaw and his move to 'grand old man' roles by the late 1930s led to his being cast in the 1938 film of
Pygmalion as Colonel Pickering and in the 1939 film of
Goodbye, Mr. Chips. He appeared in ''Here's to Our Enterprise'', a one-night show in May 1938 based on
Henry Irving's life (as part of the celebrations surrounding the centenary of Irving's birth) and, though this marked his last major appearance on the London stage, also performed in revivals and new work for the Birmingham Repertory Company between 1942 and 1945 before retiring in the late 1940s. ==Filmography==