Posted on 08/04/2012 6:49:13 AM PDT by DFG
Pop culture watchers may recall David Niven as an Oscar-winning actor famous for such movies as “Around the World in 80 Days” and “The Pink Panther.” History should also remember him for his service with the military in his native England.
The son of a military man, James David Graham Niven’s military career began with his admittance to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. Niven later was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Highland Light Infantry. He was discharged in 1935 and, with little for a military man to do after World War I, went to Hollywood to work as an extra where he caught the attention of producer Samuel Goldwyn.
Goldwyn signed him to a contract with MGM and his career began to take off. It wasn’t long before Niven was being cast in leading roles. However, he left show business temporarily to rejoin the army when Britain declared war on Germany in 1939. The British Embassy advised British actors to stay in Hollywood, and he was the only one to ignore that advice and return home.
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Very cool. Thanks for posting.
In the 1950s elementary school, two Niven nephews were my class mates.
They looked and talked like their movie star uncle.
Did they have mustaches?
In 1939, he was the only one to ignore the British embassy’s advice and return home. Wow, that says a lot about the man.
A great actor. His books, “The Moon’s a Balloon” and “Bring on the Empty Horses” were great reads, and very funny. He never really got over the tragic accidental death of his first wife.
Niven’s autobiographical books are very entertaining: ‘The Moon’s a Balloon” and “Bring on the Empty Horses.”
Never knew this! What a class act.
I seem to recall reading somewhere also that Niven, before making it big in films, had a variety of jobs, including digging ditches. Always seemed an interesting footnote, considering how it appeared a little discordant with the kind of cultured, urbane characters he specialized in playing.
And I could kind of relate to it, since I also had a job basically digging ditches myself, to help me get through college.
I remember him being on all the talk shows when I was a kid in the ‘70s. I bet I could find those interviews on YouTube.
Damned near did.
I saw him interviewed on Tom Snyder’s show on a Christmas Eve in the mid-70s. Have read both his books. “The Moon’s a Baloon,” is an auto-biography and “Bring On the Empty Horses,” a collection of anecdotes about the movie business.
Served in life and on screen as well, in such fantastic roles as the incredible “Guns of Navarrone”, from which George Lucas stole the ending of “Star Wars”.
Heh.
I remember David Niven for being a very good actor.
I didn’t know about any of this... thank you for posting.
My favorite author WEB Griffin has a series of really great books on the beginnings of the OSS that was eventually morphed into the CIA. London or more correctly England near London was the base of OSS operations for goings on across the water.
David Niven a British officer/agent and Joe Kennedy a US Naval officer were assigned to work together with the OSS to develop a radio controlled B 17 to be used to bomb German Submarine pens. Peter Laurie, another British officer were said to have worked with the fictional American officers/OSS members on task
The series is called The Badge of Honor series and consists of six books with the same characters on many missions throughout the war......... Great history, meticulously researched.
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