Actors

David Niven

According to his autobiography, The Moon's a Balloon, when Niven presented himself at the doors of Central Casting, he found out that he had to have a work permit, to allow him to reside and work in the U.S.

This meant that Niven had to leave U.S. soil, and again, according to his autobiography, he left for Mexico where he worked as a "gun-man", cleaning and polishing the rifles of the visiting Americans who came there to hunt quail and various other game. He received his Resident Alien Visa from the American Consulate when his birth certificate arrived from England. He then returned to the U.S. and was accepted by Central Casting as "Anglo-Saxon Type No. 2008."

His first work as an extra was as a Mexican in a Western. This inauspicious start notwithstanding, he then found himself an agent – Bill Hawks. He was signed up for a non-speaking part in MGM's Mutiny on the Bounty (1935).

He had a contract with independent film producer Samuel Goldwyn, which established his career. Niven joined what became known as the Hollywood Raj, a group of British actors in Hollywood. Other members of the group included Boris Karloff, Stan Laurel, Basil Rathbone, Ronald Colman and C. Aubrey Smith. One of his first major roles was in The Charge of the Light Brigade in 1936. A year later he starred as Capt. Fritz von Tarlenheim in 1937's The Prisoner of Zenda. Not wanting to be typecast as a 'swashbuckler' as Flynn had been, Niven made films such as the 1939 RKO comedy Bachelor Mother with Ginger Rogers, and Raffles, in which he played a gentleman thief.

After the United Kingdom declared war in 1939, Niven returned to England and joined the Army. He was re-commisioned as a lieutenant in the Rifle Brigade on 25 February 1940, and was assigned to a motor training battalion. Niven interviewed for a position with the British Commandos, and was assigned to a training base at Inverailort House in the Western Highlands. Niven would later claim credit for introducing British hero Robert Laycock to the Commandos. Working with the Army Film Unit, he also took part in the deception campaign, using minor actor M. E. Clifton James, a Montgomery lookalike, to convince the Germans that the D-Day landings would be made in the Mediterranean. Niven took part in the Normandy landings, arriving several days after D-Day. He acted in two films during the war, both of strong propaganda value: The First of the Few (1942) and The Way Ahead (1944). During his war service, his batman was Private Peter Ustinov (both of whom appeared in The Way Ahead (1944), and with whom Niven would later co-star in Death on the Nile).

David Niven was a member of the specialist Phantom Signals Unit, and was responsible for reporting and locating enemy positions, bomb lines and also keeping rear commanders up to date on changing battle lines. Niven was posted at one time to Chilham in Kent. Eisenhower was so disappointed with communications difficulty on D-Day that he personally ordered a Phantom Unit to be attached to his headquarters.

Niven remained close-mouthed about the war, despite public interest in celebrities in combat and a reputation for storytelling. He said once: "I will, however, tell you just one thing about the war, my first story and my last. I was asked by some American friends to search out the grave of their son near Bastogne. I found it where they told me I would, but it was among 27,000 others, and I told myself that here, Niven, were 27,000 reasons why you should keep your mouth shut after the war." Niven also had special scorn for the newspaper columnists covering the war who typed out self-glorifying and excessively florid prose about their meagre wartime experiences. Niven stated, "Anyone who says a bullet sings past, hums past, flies, pings, or whines past, has never heard one − they go crack." One story has surfaced: about to lead his men into a battle with an expectation of heavy casualties, Niven eased their nervousness by telling them, "It's all very well for you chaps, but I'll have to do this all over again in Hollywood with Errol Flynn!"

He did open up about his war experience in his 1971 autobiography, The Moon's a Balloon, mentioning his private conversations with Winston Churchill, the bombings, and what it was like entering Germany with the occupation forces. Niven stated that he first met Churchill during a dinner party in February 1940 when Churchill singled him out from the crowd and stated, "Young man, you did a fine thing to give up your film career to fight for your country. Mark you, had you not done so − it would have been despicable."

In spite of a six-year absence from the screen, he came second in the 1945 Popularity Poll of British film stars. On his return to Hollywood after the war, he was made a Legionnaire of the Legion of Merit, the highest American order that can be earned by a foreigner. This was presented to (temporary) Lieutenant-Colonel David Niven by General Dwight D. Eisenhower. The citation describes Niven's work in the "Troop Broadcasting Service", setting up the "Allied Expeditionary Forces Programme", a radio news and entertainment station for the Allied forces in the lead up to, and after D-Day.

He resumed his career after the war, with films such as A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Around the World in 80 Days (1956) (as Phileas Fogg), The Guns Of Navarone (1961), and The Pink Panther (1963).

The same year as he hosted the show with Jack Lemmon and Bob Hope, Niven won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Separate Tables (1958). Niven had a long and complex relationship with Samuel Goldwyn, who had first given him his start, but whom Niven believed had been treating him unfairly. Despite their long business history, Niven and Goldwyn went through an eight year estrangement in which Niven was essentially blacklisted from the movie industry after demanding greater compensation for his work. After winning the Academy Award, Niven received a telephone call from Goldwyn with the invitation that he should come to his home. Niven claimed that he was in Goldwyn's drawing room when he noticed a picture of him in uniform that he had sent to Goldwyn from England during World War II. He claimed that in happier times with Goldwyn, he had observed this same picture sitting on top of Goldwyn's piano. Now years later, the picture was still in the exact same spot. Niven claimed that as he was looking at the picture, Goldwyn's wife, Francis, approached him and said, "Sam never took it down."

David Niven had in fact been Ian Fleming's preference for the part of James Bond, however EON Productions chose Sean Connery for their series. In 1967, he starred with Deborah Kerr and Barbara Bouchet in the James Bond satire, Casino Royale. In a documentary included with the U.S. DVD of the 1967 release of Casino Royale, Charles K. Feldman states that Ian Fleming had written the book with David Niven in mind, and therefore sent a copy of the book to Niven. David Niven is the only James Bond actor who is mentioned by name in the text of Fleming's James Bond novels. In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond visits an exclusive ski resort in Switzerland where he is told that David Niven is a frequent visitor and in You Only Live Twice, David Niven is referred to as the only real gentleman in Hollywood.

Niven co-starred with Peter Sellers four times; however, in two instances (Casino Royale and The Trail of the Pink Panther), neither actor actually met. In Casino Royale he was called in after Sellers walked off the set, and in The Trail of the Pink Panther he filmed his sequences after Sellers' death.

Late in life, he gained critical acclaim for his memoirs of his boyhood and acting career, The Moon's a Balloon (1971) and Bring On the Empty Horses (1975). Although it has since come to light that despite Niven's frequent recounting of anecdotes about Hollywood in a manner that suggested that he had been personally involved at the time, in many cases he had not in fact been a witness to them and he was merely embroidering stories he had heard at third hand.

Niven also took a role in television. He was one of the "four stars", with Dick Powell, Charles Boyer, and Ida Lupino of Four Star Television. He appeared in various Four Star programs, including Mr. Adams and Eve starring Lupino and her then husband, Howard Duff, and in the role of Marcus Dodds in the 1960 episode "The Trench Coat" of the anthology series The DuPont Show with June Allyson.

Perhaps one of Niven's finest moments came when he had to present the 46th Annual Oscars ceremony, and a naked man appeared behind him, running across the stage. Not to be outclassed or nonplussed even for a moment, Niven came back with the one liner "Isn't it fascinating to think, that probably the only laugh that man will ever get in his life, is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings!"