Robert Donat was, along with such other actors as Leslie Howard and Ronald Colman, a leading British aristocrat of the screen during the 1930s and '40s. Blessed with a beautiful speaking voice, Donat brought a quiet delicacy to his roles, leading Charles Laughton to call him "the most graceful actor of our time."

Donat is especially well-remembered for Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps (1935) ; The Citadel (1938), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actor; and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), for which he bested Clark Gable in Gone With the Wind and Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights to win the Oscar.

He was born Friedrich Robert Donat on March 18, 1905, in Withington, Manchester, Lancashire, England, of English, Polish, German and French descent. After training in speech and elocution in high school to cure a stammer, he made his first stage appearance at the age of 16 at the Prince Wales Theatre. Beginning in 1924, he acted for four years with Sir Frank Benson's Shakespearean company before moving into film.

Donat made his film debut in the Alexander Korda production Men of Tomorrow (1932), and scored a big success in his fourth film, playing Thomas Culpeper in the Charles Laughton vehicle The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933). While working on Knight Without Armor (1937), opposite Marlene Dietrich, he had difficulties completing the film because of a nervous condition and acute asthma, which made Korda consider replacing him on the project. Dietrich is credited for convincing the producing to wait on Donat to get better.

After his triumph in Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Donat returned to the stage and scored successes in such British productions as Heartbreak House, The Cure for Love and Much Ado About Nothing. But he continued to struggle in his career projects because of problems caused by asthma and other health problems, and made relatively few films after the mid-1940s.

Donat was married twice: to Ella Annesley Voysey, whom he divorced after having three children; and to Renée Asherson, from 1953 until his death from a brain tumor in 1958. Here are the films in TCM's tribute:

The Count of Monte Cristo (1934), based on the 1844 Alexandre Dumas novel and a frequent film subject, was the first sound treatment of the story. (Subsequent remakes came in 1943, 1954, 1961, 1975 and 2002.) Donat stars as the Count, a French seaman of the Napoleonic era who seeks revenge after being unjustly imprisoned for 20 years. Elissa Landi is the love interest, and the supporting cast is headed by Louis Calhern and Sidney Blackmer. Directed by Rowland V. Lee, this was Donat's only film made in the U.S. He disliked working away from his homeland - especially in Hollywood, where film stars led a "fish bowl" life.

Sabotage Agent (1943), known in Britain as The Adventures of Tartu, is a spy film made during World War II. Donat plays a British captain who travels to Czechoslovakia to steal a formula for poison gas from the Nazis and to sabotage the plant where it is manufactured. Harold S. Bucquet directed, and Glynis Johns and Valerie Hobson play the women in the captain's life. Donat was praised by critics for the "gusto" he brought to his performance.

Vacation from Marriage (1945), known in Britain as Perfect Strangers, pairs Donat with Deborah Kerr, and they make a charming pair in this story of a complacent young married couple who are separated by their service in World War II and find themselves drastically changed - for the better, as it turns out. But will they still be compatible with their new personas? Korda directed and Glynis Johns shines as Kerr's friend.

The Winslow Boy (1948), based on the Terrence Rattigan play, provides Donat with one of his best screen roles. Set in Edwardian England and based on an actual incident, the film tells the story of a student at the Royal Naval College who is falsely accused of theft and defended by a distinguished barrister (Donat) in what would become a celebrated case. The film was directed by frequent Rattigan colleague Anthony Asquith and costars Cedric Hardwicke and Margaret Leighton. Critic David Schwartz wrote that Donat is "superb as the witty and elegant lawyer, who also has grit and compassion."

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958), Donat's final film, was released after his death. Ingrid Bergman stars as real-life missionary Gladys Aylward, who served in China in the years leading up to World War II and undertakes a daring rescue mission involving dozens of orphans. Donat looks frail in his role as the mandarin of the town where Aylward lives, but he still gives his customary polished performance.

by Roger Fristoe