Leo Genn

Leo John Genn (9 August 1905 – 26 January 1978) was a British stage and film actor and barrister.

Early life and Family
Genn was born at 144 Kyverdale Road, Stamford Hill, Hackney, London, England. His father, Woolfe (William) Genn, was a jewellery salesman and the maiden name of his mother, Rachel, was Asserson.

Genn attended the City of London School and studied law at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, qualifying as a barrister in 1928. He ceased practising as a lawyer soon after the Second World War. On 14 May 1933, Genn married Marguerite van Praag, a casting director at Ealing Studios. They had no children.

Theatre career
Genn's theatrical debut was in 1930 in A Marriage has been Disarranged at the Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne and then at the Royalty Theatre in Dean Street, London. Actor/manager Leon M. Lion had engaged him simultaneously as an actor and attorney. In 1933 he appeared in Ballerina by Rodney Ackland. Between September 1934 and March 1936, Leo Genn was a member of the Old Vic Company where he appeared in many productions of Shakespeare. In 1937 he was Horatio in Tyrone Guthrie's production of Hamlet, with Laurence Olivier as Hamlet, in Elsinore, Denmark. In 1938, Genn appeared in the theatrical hit, The Flashing Stream by Charles Langbridge Morgan and went with the show to America and Broadway. His many other stage performances included Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest, 12 Angry Men, The Devil's Advocate, Maugham's The Sacred Flame. In 1959 Genn gave a reading in Chichester Cathedral.

Film career
Genn's first film role was as Shylock in Immortal Gentleman (1935), a biography of Shakespeare. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. hired Genn as a technical advisor on the film Accused (1936). He was subsequently given a small part in the film on the strength of a "splendid voice and presence". Genn received another small role in Alexander Korda's The Drum (1938) and was the young man who danced with Eliza Doolittle at the duchess's ball in Pygmalion, a film made in the same year, although he was uncredited.

War Service
Genn was commissioned in the Royal Artillery on 6 July 1940 and was promoted Lieutenant Colonel in 1943. In 1944, the actor was given official leave to appear as the Constable of France in Laurence Olivier's Henry V. Genn was awarded the Croix de Guerre in 1945. He was part of the British unit that investigated war crimes at Belsen concentration camp and later was an assistant prosecutor at the trial for Belsen in Lüneburg, Germany.

Post-war
He was in Green for Danger (1946) and The Snake Pit (1948). After his Oscar-nominated success as Petronius in Quo Vadis (1951) he appeared in John Huston's Moby Dick (1956). Genn also appeared in some rather forgettable American films, such as The Girls of Pleasure Island, and Plymouth Adventure (1952), a fictionalised, but entertaining soap opera treatment of the Pilgrims' landing at Plymouth Rock. He fared far better in a British film, Personal Affair (1953), starring opposite Gene Tierney. He played Major Michael Pemberton in Rossellini's remarkable and largely forgotten film Era Notte a Roma (Escape by Night, 1960). Leo Genn narrated both the coronation programmes of 1937 and 1953; the King George VI Memorial Programme, 1952; UN opening (from USA), 1947.

Genn was a governor of the Mermaid Theatre and trustee of the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. He was also council member of the Arts Educational Trust. He was appointed Distinguished Visiting Professor of Theatre Arts, Pennsylvania State University, 1968 and Visiting Professor of Drama, University of Utah, 1969.

Genn died 26 January 1978 in London from pneumonia, complications of a heart attack. His interment was in France.

Filmography
Ivory]]) He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Petronius in Quo Vadis.
 * 1936 Accused
 * 1936 Dream Doctor
 * 1937 Jump for Glory
 * 1938 Kate Plus Ten
 * 1938 Dangerous Medicine
 * 1940 Girl in the News
 * 1940 Contraband (uncredited)
 * 1944 The Way Ahead
 * 1944 Tunisian Victory, (narrator)
 * 1944 Henry V
 * 1945 ''Caesar and Cleopatra
 * 1946 Green for Danger
 * 1947 Mourning Becomes Electra
 * 1948 ''The Velvet Touch
 * 1948 London Belongs to Me, narrator (uncredited)
 * 1948 The Snake Pit
 * 1950 No Place for Jennifer
 * 1950 The Miniver Story
 * 1950 The Wooden Horse
 * 1951 Quo Vadis (Petronius)
 * 1952 Plymouth Adventure, William Bradford
 * 1953 Elizabeth is Queen (documentary, narrator)
 * 1953 The Girls of Pleasure Island
 * 1953 Personal Affair
 * 1953 The Red Beret (Major John Snow)
 * 1954 The Green Scarf
 * 1955 Lady Chatterley's Lover
 * 1955 Chantage
 * 1956 Beyond Mombasa
 * 1956 Moby Dick (Starbuck)
 * 1957 The Steel Bayonet (Maj. Gerrard)
 * 1958 ''No Time to Die
 * 1958 I Accuse! (Col. Picquard)
 * 1959 You'll Never See Me Again
 * 1960 Era Notte a Roma (Major Pemberton)
 * 1962 The Longest Day
 * 1963 55 Days at Peking
 * 1964 The Delhi Way, narrator (documentary directed by [[James Ivory (director)|James
 * 1965 Ten Little Indians
 * 1966 Circus of Fear
 * 1966 Khartoum, narrator
 * 1968 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Dr. Lanyon) (Made-for-TV)
 * 1970 Connecting Rooms
 * 1971 A Lizard in a Woman's Skin
 * 1971 Die Screaming, Marianne
 * 1973 The Mackintosh Man
 * 1974 Cover Up
 * 1974 Frightmare (film)

Theatre

 * 1930 A Marriage Has Been Disarranged, Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne, Royalty Theatre
 * appearances in: No 17; Tiger Cats; Champion North; While Parents Sleep; Clive of India
 * 1931 O.H.M.S.
 * 1934-36 Old Vic Company:
 * 1934-35 Old Vic Season:
 * Much Ado About Nothing
 * Henry IV Part 2
 * Major Barbara
 * Hippolytus by Euripides
 * The Two Shepherds by Sierra
 * Othello
 * The Taming of the Shrew, Sadler's Wells
 * Saint Joan, Old Vic/Sadler's Wells
 * Richard II
 * Antony and Cleopatra
 * Hamlet
 * Shakespeare Birthday Festival- April 23, 1935
 * Last Night of Shakespeare Season:  scenes from Hamlet, Richard II, Taming of The Shrew, May 20, 1935
 * 1935-36 Old Vic Season:
 * Julius Caesar
 * Macbeth
 * Richard III
 * King Lear
 * Saint Helena by R.C. Sherriff
 * Peer Gynt
 * The School for Scandal
 * 1936 St Helena, Dalys Theatre
 * 1936-37 Old Vic Season:
 * Twelfth Night
 * Henry V
 * 1937 Shakespeare Birthday Festival: excerpts from Shakespeare, April 23, 1937, Old Vic
 * 1937 Hamlet as Horatio, at Elsinore
 * 1938 Shakespeare Birthday Festival:  excerpts from Shakespeare, April 25, 1938, Old Vic
 * 1938 The Flashing Stream, Lyric Theatre & New York 1939
 * 1946 Another Part of the Forest, New York
 * 1948 Jonathan, Aldwych
 * 1951 The Seventh Veil, Prince's Theatre
 * 1953 Henry VIII, Old Vic
 * 1954 The Bombshell, Westminster Theatre
 * 1957 Small War on Murray Hill, New York
 * 1959 The Hidden River, Cambridge Theatre
 * 1961 The Devil's Advocate, New York
 * 1964 Fair Game for Lovers, New York
 * 1964 ''12 Angry Men, Queen’s Theatre
 * 1967 The Sacred Flame, Duke of York's Theatre
 * 1968 The Only Game in Town, New York
 * 1968 Caesar and Cleopatra, US
 * 1969 Doctor Faustus, US

Television

 * 1955 Omnibus: "Herod"
 * 1955 Screen Director's Playhouse: "Titanic Incident"
 * 1960 Mrs Miniver with Maureen O'Hara as Mrs Miniver and Leo Genn as Clem Miniver, CBS
 * 1961 The Defenders
 * 1961 The Jack Paar Show, (himself)
 * 1962 An Act of Faith, a BBC documentary on Coventry Cathedral, narrated by Leo Genn
 * 1963 Bob Hope Presents The Chrysler Theatre: "Commander Tony Gardiner"
 * 1963 The Merv Griffin Show, (himself)
 * 1964 "The Thirty Days of Gavin Heath", an episode of The Virginian, Leo Genn as Gavin Heath
 * 1965 The Cat's Cradle by Hugo Charteris, an installment of The Wednesday Play, BBC Television
 * 1967 Saint Joan
 * 1969 Strange Report
 * 1969  The Expert
 * 1970 Howard's End (with Glenda Jackson), an installment of Play of the Month BBC Television
 * 1971 The Persuaders
 * 1974 The Zoo Gang

Radio

 * 1945 The Man of Property,Young Jolyon in Muriel Levy's adaptation of the first novel in John Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga sequence, broadcast by BBC radio in half-hourly episodes.
 * 1963 The Enemy Below by Denys Rayner, BBC radio
 * 1965 The Skin Game, by John Galsworthy, BBC radio
 * recorded a series of W. Somerset Maugham's Ashenden stories for BBC radio.


 * Desert Island Discs, Leo Genn was the guest asked to choose 8 recordings, broadcast, Friday 26 Jun 1953