Robert Newton
From Alfred Hitchcock Wiki
- born: 01/Jun/1905 (Shaftsbury, Dorset, England, UK)
- died: 25/Mar/1956 (Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA) - heart attack
Biography
Robert Newton was an English actor. He was born in Shaftesbury in Dorset, England, and died in Los Angeles, USA from a heart attack.
His film career includes several notable villains, among them Bill Sikes in David Lean's 1948 film version of "Oliver Twist", Inspector Fix in "Around the World in Eighty Days" (his last film in 1956), Javert in the 1952 "Les Misérables".
He is most famous for playing the feverish-eyed Long John Silver in the Disney movie "Treasure Island", as well as a previous Long John Silver film called "Return to Treasure Island" (sometimes also known simply as Long John Silver), and even a 13-episode TV series spun off from the whole L.J.Silver genre. This portrayal has provided the template for all screen portrays of Pirates since, making Newton the quintessential Hollywood pirate for all time. Newton has even become the Patron Saint of "International Talk Like a Pirate Day" on September 19th. He went on to play Bristol's other famous pirate Blackbeard in the film "Blackbeard the Pirate", but was never able to shake the legacy of Long John Silver. Even his role as Inspector Fix in "Around the World in Eighty Days" was influenced by his portrayals of pirates.
Curiously, Newton appeared in major roles in two films based on the novella "The Vessel of Wrath", by W. Somerset Maugham. He played the Dutch contrôleur in the (1938) film "The Vessel of Wrath" (released in the U.S. as The Beachcomber), and the lead role of Edward "Ginger Ted" Wilson in "The Beachcomber" (1954). He starred as the hatter, James Brodie, in "Hatter's Castle", a 1941 film based on the novel by A.J. Cronin. He also played Ancient Pistol in Laurence Olivier's 1944 film of "Henry V".
On stage, he appeared in a number of plays by Noel Coward.
Along with Errol Flynn, he was one of the most popular actors amongst the male juvenile audience of the 1940s and early 1950s, especially among British boys; he was cited as a role model by Oliver Reed and musician Keith Moon.
On his passing in 1956, Robert Newton was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Filmography
With Hitchcock...
- Jamaica Inn (1939) - cast: James 'Jem' Trehearne
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents
- "The Derelicts" (05/Feb/1956) - cast: Peter J. Goodfellow