Patric Knowles

Patric Knowles
Knowles in 1950
Born	Reginald Lawrence Knowles (1911-11-11)11 November 1911 Horsforth, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died	23 December 1995(1995-12-23) (aged 84) Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1932–1973
Spouse	Enid Percival ​ ​ (m. 1935)​
Children	2

Patric Knowles (11 November 1911 – 23 December 1995), born Reginald Lawrence Knowles, was an English film actor. Born in Horsforth, West Riding of Yorkshire,^[1] he later changed his name to reflect his Irish heritage. He made his film debut in 1932, and played either first or second film leads throughout his career. He appeared in films from the 1930s to the 1970s.^[2]

Career

British acting career

Knowles began his acting career with the British sound films early in 1932, calling himself Patric Knowles. He made his film debut in Men of Tomorrow (1932), produced by Alexander Korda.

He later joined the repertory group of the Oxford Playhouse theater and began touring with various companies and was involved in some seasons in regional theater, being featured in 14 British films, including The Poisoned Diamond (1933), directed by W. P. Kellino; Norah O'Neale (1934), directed by Brian Desmond Hurst; Regal Cavalcade (1935); and The Girl in the Crowd (1935), directed by Michael Powell.

He had the male lead in The Student's Romance (1935) with Grete Natzler and Honours Easy (1935) with Greta Nissen and was in Abdul the Damned (1935), Mister Hobo (1935) with George Arliss, Wrath of Jealousy (1936), and Two's Company (1936).^[3]

After a few tours Knowles went to London and appeared in By Appointment in 1936, where he was spotted by Irving Asher of Warner Bros. and got a Hollywood contract for more than 2 years.^[4] He had the lead in his final British films, The Brown Wallet (1936), directed by Powell; Fair Exchange (1936), directed by Ralph Ince; and Crown v. Stevens (1936), directed by Powell.^[5]

Warner Bros

Knowles' first American film was Give Me Your Heart (1936) with Kay Francis (released in Great Britain as Sweet Aloes.) Knowles was cast as a titled Englishman of means.

His second film for Warners was The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), where he played the younger brother of Errol Flynn, who was loved by Olivia de Havilland.^[6] Knowles returned to England to make Irish for Luck (1936), and then supported Bette Davis in It's Love I'm After (1937).

Knowles was top billed in some B pictures at Warners: Expensive Husbands (1937) and The Patient in Room 18 (1938). He was re-teamed with Flynn and De Havilland in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), playing Will Scarlett, and again with the pair in Four's a Crowd (1938). He supported Flynn and Bette Davis in The Sisters (1938).^[7] Knowles had supporting roles in two more B pictures before leaving the studio: Heart of the North (1938) and Torchy Blane in Chinatown (1939).

Republic Pictures borrowed Knowles to play the lead in Storm Over Bengal (1938).^[8]

RKO

Knowles in Five Came Back (1939)

Knowles signed a contract at RKO, for whom he made Beauty for the Asking (1939) with Lucille Ball; Five Came Back (1939) also with Ball, directed by John Farrow; and The Spellbinder (1939).

He went to MGM for Another Thin Man (1939) with William Powell and Myrna Loy and 20th Century-Fox for The Honeymoon's Over (1939). He was back at RKO for two more films with John Farrow: Married and in Love (1940) and a remake of A Bill of Divorcement (1940) with Maureen O'Hara and Adolphe Menjou. They were followed by Anne of Windy Poplars (1941), playing Gilbert Blythe.

Again at 20th Century-Fox, he was in How Green Was My Valley (1941) for John Ford.^[9]

Universal

Ilona Massey and Knowles in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

Knowles, Lon Chaney Jr. and Doris Lloyd in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943)

Knowles went to Universal for a support part in The Wolf Man (1941) with Lon Chaney Jr. and Claude Rains. He went to Republic for Women in War (1941) then was top billed in Universal's The Strange Case of Doctor Rx (1942), and Mystery of Marie Roget (1942) with Maria Montez.

He supported Irene Dunne in Gregory La Cava's Lady in a Jam (1942) with Ralph Bellamy and Eugene Pallette, Constance Bennett in Sin Town (1942), Abbott and Costello in Who Done It? (1942) and Hit the Ice (1943), Ilona Massey in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) with Lon Chaney Jr. and Bela Lugosi, Rosemary Lane in All by Myself (1943), The Andrews Sisters in Always a Bridesmaid (1943), Olsen and Johnson in Crazy House (1943), Donald O'Connor and Peggy Ryan in Chip Off the Old Block (1944) and This Is the Life (1944), and Gloria Jean in Pardon My Rhythm (1944).^[10]

Paramount

With Anne Gwynne, 1942

Knowles went to Paramount where he supported Paulette Goddard and Ray Milland in Kitty (1945), Dorothy Lamour in Masquerade in Mexico (1945), Barbara Stanwyck in The Bride Wore Boots (1946), and Alan Ladd in O.S.S. (1946).^[11]

He went to Warners for Of Human Bondage (1946) and Universal borrowed him to play Joan Fontaine's leading man in the thriller Ivy (1947).^[12] He went back to Paramount for Monsieur Beaucaire (1946) with Bob Hope, Variety Girl (1947) with practically every performer on the Paramount lot, Dream Girl (1948), and Isn't It Romantic? (1949).^[13]

Knowles went to RKO for The Big Steal (1949) with Robert Mitchum, Jane Greer and William Bendix, and 20th Century-Fox for Three Came Home (1950), second billed, playing Claudette Colbert's husband.^[14]

Television

Knowles and Angela Lansbury in Mutiny (1952)

Mark Stevens and Knowles, 1952

Knowles began appearing on TV shows such as The Bigelow Theatre, Studio One in Hollywood, Lights Out, Hollywood Opening Night, Robert Montgomery Presents, The Revlon Mirror Theater, The United States Steel Hour, The Whistler, Studio 57, The Ford Television Theatre, and Jane Wyman Presents The Fireside Theatre.

He still appeared in features such as Quebec (1951), Mutiny (1952), Tarzan's Savage Fury (1952) (as the villain), Jamaica Run (1953), Flame of Calcutta (1953) for Sam Katzman (second billed to Denise Darcel), World for Ransom (1954), Khyber Patrol (1954) and No Man's Woman (1955).^[15]

From the late 1950s Knowles became an almost exclusively television actor appearing in Star Stage, The 20th Century-Fox Hour, Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers , Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Lux Video Theatre, Matinee Theatre, Schlitz Playhouse, The Millionaire, Lux Playhouse, Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, Wagon Train, General Electric Theater, 77 Sunset Strip, Tightrope, Maverick in episodes "The Wrecker" with James Garner and Jack Kelly and "Guatemala City" with James Garner, The Barbara Stanwyck Show, Klondike, The Jim Backus Show, Death Valley Days, The Islanders, Checkmate, Peter Gunn, Whispering Smith, Hawaiian Eye, Have Gun – Will Travel (as Phileas Fogg in the episode "Foggbound", and as August in “Savages”) with Richard Boone, Gunsmoke, The Rogues, Mickey with Mickey Rooney, and Jericho.

He had a small role in the feature Band of Angels (1957) with Clark Gable and Sidney Portier, From the Earth to the Moon (1958) and Auntie Mame (1958) with Rosalind Russell.

Later career

Knowles' later appearances included television guest star roles on Family Affair, Garrison's Gorillas, and Marcus Welby, M.D.. He appeared in three films for director Andrew McLaglen,The Way West (1967) with Kirk Douglas and Robert Mitchum, as Lord Mountbatten in The Devil's Brigade (1968) with William Holden and Cliff Robertson, and as John Tunstall in Chisum (1970) with John Wayne. He also appeared in In Enemy Country (1968) with Tony Franciosa, D.A.: Murder One (1969), Getting Together (1971), The Man (1972) with James Earl Jones, Terror in the Wax Museum (1973) with Ray Milland and Elsa Lanchester, and Arnold (1973) with Stella Stevens.

Knowles was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame under the category Television on February 8, 1960.^[2]

Personal Life

Knowles met Gladys Enid Percival when both appeared together at the Playhouse Theater in Oxford, England.^[9] He married the 23-year-old on 3 October 1935.^[16] Under contract to Warner Studios, in 1936 they moved to New York City. In 1939, the couple moved to Tarzana in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Sometime after 1936, Knowles became interested in flying, which led him to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force. He had hundreds of hours of flying experience, but because an eye ailment prevented him from flying, he became an instructor.^[17] After returning to Hollywood, while between films he served as a civilian flying instructor with the U.S. Army Air Force at the Mira Loma Academy for air cadets at Oxnard, California.^[9]

In 1940, a limerick circulated about Knowles: How pleasant to know Patric Knowles/ Who is the kindest of souls/ But being handsome and a British swell/ Nobody expects him to act very well/ Which is why he never gets good roles.^[18]

Knowles and his wife Enid had a daughter, Antonia Vaughan, and a son, Michael.^[9]

Knowles wrote a novel, Even Steven (Vantage Press, 1960, ASIN B0006RMC2G).

Death

Knowles died at age 84 from a brain hemorrhage at West Hills Regional Medical Center in West Hills, California on 23 December 1995.^[19]

Partial filmography

Year	Film	Role	Director	Notes
1932	Men of Tomorrow		Leontine Sagan
1933	The Poisoned Diamond	Jack Dane	W.P. Kellino
1934	Irish Hearts	Pip Fitzgerald	Brian Desmond Hurst
1935	Royal Cavalcade	Army Officer	Marcel Varnel
1935	The Girl in the Crowd	Tom Burrows	Michael Powell
1935	The Student's Romance	Max Brandt	Otto Kanturek
1935	Honours Easy	Harry Markham	Herbert Brenon
1935	Abdul the Damned	Hilmi's Attaché	Karl Grune
1935	The Guv'nor	Paul	Milton Rosmer
1936	Wedding Group	Robert Smith	Campbell Gullan
1936	Two's Company	Lord Jerry Wendower	Tim Whelan
1936	Fair Exchange	Tony Meredith	Ralph Ince
1936	The Brown Wallet	John Gillespie	Michael Powell
1936	Crown v. Stevens	Chris Jensen	Michael Powell
1936	Give Me Your Heart	Robert Melford	Archie Mayo
1936	The Charge of the Light Brigade	Captain Perry Vickers	Michael Curtiz
1936	Irish for Luck	Terry O'Ryan	Arthur B. Woods
1937	It's Love I'm After	Henry Grant	Archie Mayo
1937	Expensive Husbands	Prince Rupert Heinrich Franz Von Rentzau	Bobby Connolly
1938	The Patient in Room 18	Lance O'Leary	Crane Wilbur
1938	The Adventures of Robin Hood	Will Scarlett	Michael Curtiz William Keighley
1938	Four's a Crowd	Patterson Buckley	Michael Curtiz
1938	The Sisters	Norman French	Anatole Litvak
1938	Storm Over Bengal	Capt. Jeffrey Allison	Sidney Salkow
1938	Heart of the North	Corporal Jim Montgomery	Lewis Seiler
1939	Torchy Blane in Chinatown	Captain Condon	William Beaudine
1939	Beauty for the Asking	Denny Williams	Glenn Tryon
1939	Five Came Back	Judson Ellis	John Farrow
1939	The Spellbinder	Tom Dixon	Jack Hively
1939	Another Thin Man	Dudley Horn	W. S. Van Dyke
1939	The Honeymoon's Over	Pat Shields	Eugene Forde
1940	Married and in Love	Paul Wilding	John Farrow
1940	A Bill of Divorcement	John Storm	John Farrow
1940	Women in War	Lt. Larry Hall	John H. Auer
1940	Anne of Windy Poplars	Gilbert Blythe	Jack Hively
1941	How Green Was My Valley	Ivor	John Ford
1941	The Wolf Man	Frank Andrews	George Waggner
1942	The Strange Case of Doctor Rx	Jerry Church	William Nigh
1942	The Mystery of Marie Roget	Dr. Paul Dupin	Philip Rosen
1942	Lady in a Jam	Doctor Enright	Gregory La Cava
1942	Sin Town	Wade Crowell	Ray Enright
1942	Who Done It?	Jimmy Turner	Erle C. Kenton	Abbott & Costello film
1943	Forever and a Day	Trimble-Pomfret Son	René Clair Edmund Goulding Cedric Hardwicke Frank Lloyd Victor Saville Robert Stevenson Herbert Wilcox
1943	Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man	Dr. Mannering	Roy William Neill
1943	Hit the Ice	Dr. Bill Elliot (Credits) / Dr. William 'Bill' Burns (in Film)	Charles Lamont	Abbott & Costello film
1943	All by Myself	Dr. Bill Perry	Felix E. Feist
1943	Always a Bridesmaid	Tony Warren	Erle C. Kenton
1943	Crazy House	Edmund 'Mac' MacLean	Edward F. Cline
1944	Chip Off the Old Block	Commander Judd Corrigan	Charles Lamont
1944	This Is the Life	Maj. Hilary Jarret	Felix E. Feist
1944	Pardon My Rhythm	Tony Page	Felix E. Feist
1945	Kitty	Brett Harwood Earl of Carstairs	Mitchell Leisen
1945	Masquerade in Mexico	Thomas Grant	Mitchell Leisen
1946	The Bride Wore Boots	Lance Gale	Irving Pichel
1946	O.S.S.	Cmdr. Brady	Irving Pichel
1946	Of Human Bondage	Harry Griffiths	Edmund Goulding
1946	Monsieur Beaucaire	Duc le Chandre	George Marshall
1947	Ivy	Roger Gretorex	Sam Wood
1947	Variety Girl	Patric Knowles	George Marshall
1948	Dream Girl	Jim Lucas	Mitchell Leisen
1948	Isn't It Romantic?	Richard 'Rick' Brannon	Norman Z. McLeod
1949	The Big Steal	Jim Fiske	Don Siegel
1950	Three Came Home	Harry Keith	Jean Negulesco
1951	Quebec	Charles Douglas	George Templeton
1952	Mutiny	Capt. Ben Waldridge	Edward Dmytryk
1952	Tarzan's Savage Fury	Edwards, English Traitor	Cy Endfield
1953	Jamaica Run	William Montague	Lewis R. Foster
1953	Flame of Calcutta	Capt. Keith Lambert	Seymour Friedman
1954	World for Ransom	Julian March	Robert Aldrich (uncredited)
1954	Khyber Patrol	Lt. George Kennedy	Seymour Friedman
1955	No Man's Woman	Wayne Vincent	Franklin Adreon
1957	Band of Angels	Charles de Marigny	Raoul Walsh	With Clark Gable and Sidney Portier
1958	From the Earth to the Moon	Josef Cartier	Byron Haskin
1958	Auntie Mame	Lindsay Woolsey	Morton DaCosta
1967	The Way West	Captain Grant	Andrew V. McLaglen	With Kirk Douglas and Robert Mitchum
1968	The Devil's Brigade	Adm. Lord Mountbatten	Andrew V. McLaglen
1968	In Enemy Country	General Lloyd-Griffis	Harry Keller
1970	Chisum	Henry Tunstall	Andrew V. McLaglen	With John Wayne
1972	The Man	South African Consul	Joseph Sargent
1973	Terror in the Wax Museum	Mr. Southcott	Georg Fenady
1973	Arnold	Douglas Whitehead	Georg Fenady	final film role

References

1. Lentz, Harris M. (1995). Obituaries in the Performing Arts. McFarland & Company. ISBN 978-0-7864-0253-3.
2. Chad (25 October 2019). "Patric Knowles". Hollywood Walk of Fame. Retrieved 23 April 2024.
3. "The Life Story of PATRIC KNOWLES". Picture Show. Vol. 40, no. 1, 039. London. 25 March 1939. p. 18.
4. "Archives". Los Angeles Times. 27 December 1995.
5. "Young Men Who Were "Discovered" in London". The Sydney Morning Herald. No. 30, 933. 23 February 1937. p. 9 (Women's Supplement). Retrieved 3 October 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
6. Schallert, Edwin (9 March 1936). "Irvin Cobb, Film Future Secure, to Star in "Gentleman From Mississippi": Writer's Thespianic Adventure Proceeds Claude Rains and Charles Boyer Both Will Have Fling at Napoleon Interpretation; Choir Singer in "Stagestruck"". Los Angeles Times. p. 15.
7. More than two decades after Flynn's death, biographer Charles Higham accused Flynn of having been a fascist sympathizer and Nazi spy. Knowles, who had served in World War II as a flying instructor in the Royal Canadian Air Force, came to Flynn's defense, writing Rebuttal for a Friend as an epilogue to Tony Thomas' Errol Flynn: The Spy Who Never Was (Citadel Press, 1990) ISBN 0-8065-1180-X.
8. "FILM FLASHES". The Broadcaster. 17 August 1939. p. 2. Retrieved 3 October 2018 – via National Library of Australia.
9. Archives, L. A. Times (27 December 1995). "Obituaries : Patric Knowles; British Actor". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 22 April 2024.
10. "Patric Knowles Has Schedule Of Farm Chores". The Washington Post. 13 December 1942. p. L3.
11. Shipman, David (30 December 1995). "obituaries: Patric Knowles". The Independent (FINAL ed.). p. 14.
12. "MISS DURBIN TO DO 'FOR LOVE OF MARY': Actress Is Named for Comedy by Universal-International-- 'Central Park' Postponed Buchman Buys "Dark Page"". New York Times. 7 December 1946. p. 27.
13. "Patric Knowles Winds Up Tribute to St. Patrick in Jail". Los Angeles Times. 19 March 1947. p. 2.
14. Knowles, Patric (2 January 1996). "Secondary panache". The Guardian. p. 13.
15. Schallert, Edwin (27 May 1950). "Drama: Rooney Would Do Caddy Sleuth; Patric Knowles Plays Rebel in 'Quebec'". Los Angeles Times. p. 9.
16. "Ancestry Library Edition".
17. "Sergeant-Pilot Pat Knowles Pays Visit to Hollywood: Actor on Leave From Training Post With Canadian Air Force". Los Angeles Times. 19 March 1941. p. 3.
18. Bergan, Ronald (2 January 1996). "Obituary: Patric Knowles Secondary panache". The Guardian. p. 013.
19. Associated Press (28 December 1995). "Patric Knowles, of 'Robin Hood' And 'Light Brigade,' Dies at 84". The New York Times.

Further reading

• Alistair, Rupert (2018). "Patric Knowles". The Name Below the Title : 65 Classic Movie Character Actors from Hollywood's Golden Age (softcover) (First ed.). Great Britain: Independently published. pp. 137–139. ISBN 978-1-7200-3837-5.

External links

• Patric Knowles at IMDb