German postcard by Wilhelm Schulze-Witteborg, Wanne-Eickel. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer.
English actor Stewart Granger (1913–1993) made over 60 films but is mainly associated with heroic and romantic leading roles. He was quoted: “I've never done a film I'm proud of”. Tall, dark, dignified, and handsome, Granger became England's top box office star in the 1940s which attracted Hollywood's attention.
Stewart Granger was born James Lablache Stewart as the grandson of the actor Luigi Lablache and ‘he was educated at Epsom College and the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. He changed his name to avoid confusion with Hollywood star James Stewart. As Granger reported in an interview once, his off-screen friends called him Jimmy. In 1933, he made his film debut as an extra in A Southern Maid (1933, Harry Hughes) and by 1935 he made his stage debut in The Cardinal at Hull. He was with the Birmingham Repertory Company between 1936 and 1937, and in 1938 he made his West End debut in The Sun Never Sets. He had been gradually rising through the ranks of better stage roles when WW II began, and he joined the British Army in 1940. However, he was eventually disabled (1942) which brought his release from military service. With a dearth of leading men for British films he quickly landed The Man in Grey (1943, Leslie Arliss). This was the first installment of Gainsborough’s successful series of costume melodramas. His first starring role made him overnight a star in Britain. Next, he starred in films like Madonna of the Seven Moons (1945, Arthur Crabtree), but the film work was unsatisfying. He was often cast as the dashing hero type, while fellow up-and-coming actor James Mason always garnered the more substantial Gainsborough part. When Mason left for Hollywood, Granger inherited better parts in films like Caesar and Cleopatra (1945, Gabriel Pascal) and Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948, Basil Dearden). In 1950 he married Jean Simmons, his co-star in Adam and Evelyne (1949, Harold French) and they both signed with MGM.
Once in Hollywood Stewart Granger was getting star billing leads in films like King Solomon's Mines (1950, Compton Bennett, Andrew Morton) with Deborah Kerr. His theatrical voice, stature, and dignified profile made him a natural heir to Errol Flynn as a swashbuckler in the popular remakes of The Prisoner of Zenda (1952, Richard Thorpe) and Scaramouche (1952, George Sidney) and in Moonfleet (1955, Fritz Lang). The audience loved those romantic roles, but he found them still unsatisfying. He and Simmons were paired in Young Bess (1953, George Sidney), where Granger had the romantic lead, but Simmons was the focus of the movie. That sort of undeclared competition was poison to their marriage. In 1960 they divorced. In total, he would marry three times and have many affairs. In his autobiography Sparks fly upward he revealed that Deborah Kerr had tried to seduce him in the back of a London cab in 1950. Although they were married to others, they went on to have an affair and remained lifelong friends. He starred with John Wayne in the comic western North to Alaska (1960, Henry Hathaway). In Italy he appeared in a comic pastiche on The Longest Day, Il Giorno più corto (1962, Sergio Corbucci) and another good war film Marcia o crepa (1962, Frank Wisbar). In Germany he played Old Surehand next to Pierre Brice’s Winnetou in three Karl May westerns, Unter Geiern (1964, Alfred Vohrer), Der Ölprinz (1965, Harald Philipp) and Old Surehand (1965, Alfred Vohrer). In the German Edgar Wallace film series of the 1960s, he was seen in The Trygon Factor (1966, Cyril Frankel). Towards the end of his career, Granger even starred in a German soap opera called Das Erbe der Guldenburgs (1987, Jürgen Goslar). In 1956, Granger had become a naturalized citizen of the USA and at the age of 80, he died in Santa Monica from prostate cancer.
Sources: IMDb and Wikipedia.