James Neville Mason (; 15 May 190927 July 1984) was an English actor. He achieved considerable success in British cinema before becoming a star in Hollywood. He was the top box-office attraction in the UK in 1944 and 1945; his British films included The Seventh Veil (1945) and The Wicked Lady (1945). He starred in Odd Man Out (1947), the first recipient of the BAFTA Award for Best British Film.
Mason starred in such films as George Cukor's A Star Is Born (1954), Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959), Stanley Kubrick's Lolita (1962), Warren Beatty's Heaven Can Wait (1978), and Sidney Lumet's The Verdict (1982). He also starred in a number of successful British and American films from the 1950s to the early 1980s, including: The Desert Fox (1951), Julius Caesar (1953), Bigger Than Life (1956), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), Georgy Girl (1966), and The Boys from Brazil (1978).
Mason was nominated for three Academy Awards, three Golden Globes (winning the Golden Globe in 1955 for A Star is Born) and two BAFTA Awards throughout his career. Following his death in 1984, his ashes were interred near the tomb of his close friend, fellow English actor Sir Charlie Chaplin.
Early life, family and education
Mason was born on 15 May 1909, in Huddersfield, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the youngest of three sons of John Mason and Mabel Hattersley, daughter of Joseph Shaw Gaunt. A wealthy wool merchant like his father before him, John Mason travelled a good deal on business, mainly in France and Belgium; Mabel – who was "uncommonly well-educated" and had lived in London to study and begin work as an artist before returning to Yorkshire to care for her father – was "attentive and loving" in raising her sons. The Masons lived in a house in its own grounds on Croft House Lane in Marsh, which was replaced in the mid-1970s by flats called Arncliffe Court. A small residential development opposite where the house once stood is now called James Mason Court.
Mason was educated at Marlborough College and took a first in architecture at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he became involved in stock theatre companies in his spare time. He had no formal training in acting and initially embarked upon it for fun.
Career
1931–1939: Early roles
After Cambridge, Mason made his stage debut in Aldershot in The Rascal in 1931. He joined the Old Vic theatre in London under the guidance of Tyrone Guthrie. While there he appeared in productions of The Cherry Orchard, Henry VIII, Measure for Measure, The Importance of Being Earnest, Love for Love, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, and Macbeth. Featuring in many of these were Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester. In the mid-1930s he also appeared at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, notably in Pride and Prejudice with Betty Chancellor. In 1933, Alexander Korda gave Mason a small role in The Private Life of Don Juan but sacked him three days into shooting.
From 1935 to 1938, Mason starred in many British quota quickies, starting with his first film Late Extra (1935), in which he played the lead. Albert Parker directed. Mason appeared in Twice Branded (1936); Troubled Waters (1936), also directed by Parker; Prison Breaker (1936); Blind Man's Bluff (1936), for Parker's The Secret of Stamboul (1936), and The Mill on the Floss (1936), an "A" movie. Mason had a key support role in Korda's Fire Over England (1937) with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. He was in another "A", The High Command (1937) directed by Thorold Dickinson, then went back to quickies, starring in Catch As Catch Can (1937), directed by Roy Kellino. Korda cast him as the villain in The Return of the Scarlet Pimpernel (1937)
Mason began appearing in some televised productions of plays, made in the very early days of television: Cyrano de Bergerac (1938), The Moon in the Yellow River (1938), Bees on the Boat-Deck (1939), Square Pegs (1939), L’Avare (1939), and The Circle (1939). He returned to features with I Met a Murderer (1939) based on a story by Mason and Pamela Kellino, who also starred with Mason and whom he would marry. Her husband Roy Kellino directed.