Biography

Jack Hawkins

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Overview

Born
September 14, 1910 · Wood Green, London, England, UK
Died
July 18, 1973 · Chelsea, London, England, UK (post-operative complications)
Birth name
John Edward Hawkins
Height
5′ 11¾″ (1.82 m)

Biography

In Britain, special Christmas plays called pantomimes are produced for children. Jack Hawkins made his London theatrical debut at age 12, playing the elf king in "Where The Rainbow Ends". At 17, he got the lead role of St. George in the same play. At 18, he made his debut on Broadway in "Journey's End". At 21, he was back in London playing a young lover in "Autumn Crocus". He married his leading lady, Jessica Tandy. That year he also played his first real film role in the 1931 sound version of Alfred Hitchcock's The Phantom Fiend (1932). During the 30s, he took his roles in plays more seriously than the films he made. In 1940, Jessica accepted a role in America and Jack volunteered to serve in the Royal Welch Fusiliers. He spent most of his military career arranging entertainment for the British forces in India. One of the actresses who came out to India was Doreen Lawrence who became his second wife after the war. Alexander Korda advised Jack to go into films and offered him a three-year contract. In his autobiography, Jack recalled: "Eight years later I was voted the number one box office draw of 1954. I was even credited with irresistible sex appeal, which is another quality I had not imagined I possessed." A late 1940s film, The Black Rose (1950), where he played a secondary role to Tyrone Power, would be one of his most fortunate choices of roles. The director was Henry Hathaway who Jack said was "probably the most feared, yet respected director in America, for he had a sharp tongue and fired people at the drop of a hat. Years later, after my operation when I lost my voice, he went out of his way to help me get back into films. What I did not know was that during the filming of 'The Black Rose' he was himself suffering from cancer." In the 1950s came the film that made Hawkins a star, The Cruel Sea (1953). Suffering from life-long, real-life seasickness, he played the captain of the Compass Rose. After surgery for throat cancer in 1966, requiring the removal of his larynx, Jack continued to make films. He mimed his lines and the voice was dubbed by either Charles Gray or Robert Rietty. His motto during those last years came from Milton's "Comus", a verse play in which he acted early in his career in Regent's Park. The lines: "Yet where an equal poise of hope and fear does arbitrate the event, my nature is that I incline to hope, rather than to fear."
- IMDb mini biography by: Dale O'Connor <daleoc@worldnet.att.net>

Family

Spouses
Children

Trademarks

Often played friendly World War II officers

Trivia

He had a daughter, Susan with Jessica Tandy and two sons, Nicholas & Andrew Hawkins, with Doreen Lawrence.
He appeared in three Best Picture Academy Award winners: The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Ben-Hur (1959) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Alec Guinness also appeared in both The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Jack Hawkins also appeared in one other Best Picture nominee: Nicholas and Alexandra (1971).
He was made a CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in the 1958 Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to drama.
In his will published on September 20 1973 he left just £13,019 gross but the net amount was shown as nil. This was a result of high UK taxes and a reduction in his income following the surgery in 1966 which resulted in the loss of his voice. The family home at 34 Ennismore Gardens, South Kensington was left to his wife and his three children were provided for through a trust fund.
Made Guns at Batasi (1964), Judith (1966), Masquerade (1965) and The Poppy Is Also a Flower (1966) while suffering from cancer of the larynx. By the time he started filming The Trial and Torture of Sir John Rampayne (1965), Hawkins had begun to cough up blood. His final role using his own voice was in a few episodes of Dr. Kildare (1961), where he managed to give a very accurate performance as a man who had just suffered a heart attack.

Quotes

I adored it from the first moment. The excitement, the thrill, the smell of the theatre went right down to one's toes.
Above all, I was taught to love and respect words. Each word had to be the right word; and each had to be spoken in a way that its weight and importance demanded.
I think that no actor should take Hollywood too seriously; but at the same time it would be wrong to underestimate its professionalism. Really, Hollywood is a caricature of itself, and in particular this is true of the front-office types at the studios. Their enthusiasm towards you is measured precisely to match the success of your last film.
Every time an army, navy or air force part comes up they throw it at me. There is nothing left now but the women's services! (1956)
All of us in the film were sure that we were making something quite unusual, and a long way removed from the Errol Flynn-taking-Burma-single-handed syndrome. This was the period of some very indifferent American war movies, whereas The Cruel Sea (1953) contained no false heroics. That is why we all felt that we were making a genuine example of the way in which a group of men went to war.