Charles Laughton Dies

Press, Volume CI, Issue 30007, 17 December 1962, Page 13

Charles Laughton Dies

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) HOLLYWOOD, Dec. 16. Charles Laughton, whose roles over three decades made him the cinema’s top character actor, died on Saturday of cancer. He was 63, the Associated Press reported. The veteran actor’s death came at the time of year in which he frequently had been in the public eyes for his Christmas season readings of Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol’’ A success on the English stage before coming to Hollywood in the early 1930’s Laughton had a lot of assignments for a decade or two. Then he gradually devoted more of his time to the things that Interested him most—his readings, which were sometimes notably pithy, and the stage that had lured him to acting in the first place. Homely And Obese He lacked the usual markings of film stars. He was admittedly homely and obese - and did not care.

He lived modestly and shunned publicity and scandal. He was notoriously lax about his dress. Yet Laughton continued in demand year after year and earned big money in films from the early 1930's until his death. Nor did he intend to stop the acting he loved. Even during his last illness, bis

agent announced his next assignment would be “Irma La Douce.” for Billy Wilder. The power of his performances is underscored by the vividness with which viewers remember all his early roles —the infamous captain Bligh with his unforgettable, biting, “Mr Christian” cry which pursued Laughton ever after; Henry the Eighth, which won an Academy Award, the English butler in “Ruggles of Red Gap,” Nero, and the unlikeable Father Barrett in “The Barretts of Wimpole Street” Story-Telling Ability in post-war years he broadened bis activities to include stage performances, notably dramatic readings from great literature of the world His vibrant voice and story-tell-ing ability won him virtually ' a new career in this field. Laughton's final film “Advise and Consent." brought him special praise in a cast fi’led with top actors. In spite of his British past. Laughton’s portrayal of United States Senator Cooley from the Deep South, was hailed as a convincing portrait Laughton is survived by hie wife, the actress, Elsa Lanchester.