Cedric Webster Hardwicke was born in Lye, Stourbridge, England on Feb 8, 1893. Despite his father's dislike of the theater, Hardwicke knew that he wanted to be an actor. "It was grease paint, liberally applied from the kit I received as a boy, that helped clinch my determination to be an actor. I have a clear recollection of daubing myself with No. 5 and No. 9, encarmining my lips, sticking grey crepe hair around my chin, then contentedly surveying the result in a bedroom mirror. The contrast between grey and carmine delighted me. 'How dramatic!' I said aloud." After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Hardwicke worked in small shows before his London debut in 1912 in The Monk and the Woman. He would make his film debut the following year in Riches and Rogues (1913), which would be his last film for 13 years.

Hardwicke would join the Army at the outbreak of World War I. He was a second lieutenant in the infantry before being transferred to the cavalry's 34th Division. His unit arrived in France in January 1915 and was in charge of transporting food and supplies from trains to troops on the front line. Hardwicke was in the Battle of the Somme, which was a five month long battle that stretched across a thirty mile front. Following the Battle, he was transferred again to the Northumberland Fusiliers in the early part of 1918 where he fought in the trenches until the end of the war in November. Upon his return to England, he remained with the Army for an additional three years. During that time he produced "Concert Parties", traveling theatrical performances to boost morale at bases in both England and France. His final assignment was as camp commandant at the British General Headquarters in Saint-Pol, France, where the body of England's Unknown Warrior (the equivalent of the United States' Unknown Soldier) was chosen. He later remembered, "I never walk past the Cenotaph without recollecting the night when I mounted guard with the other officers over the body of the Unknown Warrior until dawn in the makeshift chapel at Saint-Pol. It was an unforgettable experience." Cedric Hardwicke was the last British officer to leave the war zone. The British flag that he took down as his last duty stayed in his possession until his death.

After his discharge, Hardwicke took up acting again. Throughout his career, he would alternate between the stage and screen. On stage, he appeared in several George Bernard Shaw plays like Heartbreak House, Getting Married, Widower's Houses. It was as Caesar in Caesar and Cleopatra with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1922 that won him acclaim and prestige in the London theater world.

Hardwicke's first film role after the war was as Lord Horatio Nelson in Nelson (1926). Among the actors he worked with in those early British films were Boris Karloff in The Ghoul (1933) and Anna Neagle in Nell Gwyn (1934). "The advancement of film equipment, from a technical point of view, had wrought havoc on my ego in the one or two feeble pictures I had been making in Britain. My early ventures, like Dreyfus (1931) belonged to that era when audiences sat through films so streaky with visual imperfections that the performers seemed to have worked in a constant heavy rainfall. When those happy days faded out and clarity improved, film-goers could see me as myself, in sharp focus. My career suffered irreparable harm. I could not stand the sight of myself. I had sometimes suspected, but dismissed the suspicion, that I was not a particularly good actor. When I saw myself in films, my worst fears were confirmed." King George V disagreed. He knighted Hardwicke for his services to the theater in 1934. Unfortunately, the nearly deaf king mistakenly dubbed him "Sir Cedric Pickwick"

Hollywood disagreed as well. Hardwicke gained the notice of the film capital with his stage role in The Barretts of Wimpole Street in 1930 but it wasn't until 1935 that he went to Hollywood to co-star in the early Technicolor film Becky Sharp (1935) opposite Miriam Hopkins.

"Films had always been a spare-time occupation for me, something one did between plays, and nothing to be taken seriously. I was perpetually startled to find that the whole place, situated three thousand miles from anything recognizable as the theatre, and unable therefore to work in it, dedicated itself to the making of a product which had about the same healthful effect on its audiences as a good cup of tea. [...] Hollywood was roughly as remote from the facts of life as the newspaper headline which Nigel Bruce, an old friend of my London days, brandished at me when we dined together that first evening. ENGLISH NOBLEMAN DRIVEN TO HIS HOTEL, the type announced over a blotchy picture and a half-column of text. For a son of Lye, this was social promotion with a vengeance. I dismissed it as gracefully as I could."

Neither was Hardwicke impressed with the Hollywood publicity machine or "the Biographical Questionnaire which had been among the documents thrust into my hands as soon as I got off the train. What was my real name? What was my father's profession? Had I any famous ancestors? What were my ambitions, suppressed desires, pet aversions? Did I own a boat, and if so, what was its name? There were sixty-seven questions in all in this deadly earnest parlour game, and as I glanced at them I wondered whether anybody at the studio knew or cared anything about me. Subsequent experience indicated that nobody did. I was permitted for a month or so to cool my heels, while the unhappy affairs of Becky Sharp took several turns for the worse." Among the problems with Becky Sharp was the sudden death of the original director, Lowell Sherman, causing production delays. In the meanwhile, Hardwicke was asked to appear as Bishop Bienvenu in Les Miserables (1935), of which he wrote, "The role was profitable but scarcely taxing".

On his return to England, Hardwicke appeared in Things to Come (1936), based on the book by H.G. Wells. Of his role, he wrote that H.G. Wells, "had invited me to replace in the picture a distinguished English actor whose performance, already completely filmed, had not been to Wells' liking. The voice of this actor needed more vox humana, the author held, and my actor's instinct would not permit me to disagree with him. The one change I suggested was in my costume as Theotocopulos, the reactionary rabble-rouser who tries to destroy the Space Gun. 'If this is the year 2055 [actually 2036, changed from 2054 in the original treatment]' I argued, 'and cities are filled with skyscrapers and people dress in cloaks and sandals, think how dramatically effective Theotocopulos would be if his hankering for the past made him drive an old Ford car and he dressed like a Wall Street broker? But as I rather anticipated, Wells would not hear of it. Theotocopulos, as played by myself, wore an 'ornate, richly embroidered, coloured satin costume with a great cloak.' That was how the movie 'treatment' described it. My work in Things to Come was completed with such speed and lack of ceremony that the actor I had replaced had no idea that his entire performance lay on the cutting room floor. He arrived with a party of expectant friends at the London premiere [Leicester Square Cinema, 21 February 1936], an exceedingly fashionable gathering. After his disappointment, I remained pleasantly surprised that he did not become my enemy for life." The actor was Ernest Thesiger, best known as Dr. Pretorious in Frankenstein.

Hardwicke returned to the United States later in 1936 to make his Broadway debut in Promise before traveling to England to star as Allan Quartermain in King Solomon's Mines (1937). Graham Greene wrote, "Sir Cedric Hardwicke gives us the genuine Quartermain, and Mr. Roland Young, as far as the monocle and the white legs are concerned, is Captain Good to the life, though I missed the false teeth." Back in Hollywood, Hardwicke was in-demand. He played Death in On Borrowed Time (1939), Doctor Livingstone opposite Spencer Tracy in Stanley and Livingstone (1939) and the evil Frollo abusing Charles Laughton's Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939).

When World War II broke out in September 1939, Hardwicke attempted to return to England to enlist, but was turned down because he was too old. He was dismayed to find that in Hollywood British actors were accused of being spies or trying to persuade Americans to join the war. "Some of us actors met once a week in what we called the Ironing Board, to iron out any problems that arose in our relations with Americans as a whole and any criticisms directed against us on either side of the Atlantic." In 1943, Hardwicke helped put together an all-star film Forever and a Day to benefit the British War Relief, playing a plumber opposite Buster Keaton – a segment he also directed. He also appeared on The Gulf Screen Guild Theater performance of Goodbye, Mr. Chips, which was broadcast on November 3, 1941 with Leslie Howard as Mr. Chips and Greer Garson as his wife. It was a tribute to the King and Queen of England, who were visiting with President Roosevelt in Washington. Hardwicke was featured, as was David Niven and many of Hollywood's English actors. When Niven ran into Queen Elizabeth and asked her how she and her husband had liked the performance, she said, "Wasn't it awful? President Roosevelt's radio battery ran out just before you all came on."

After the war and for the rest of his career, Hardwicke bounced back and forth across the Atlantic to make films in England, such as The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1947), then back to Hollywood for good in 1948, the year he appeared in I Remember Mama (1948) as the penniless border who skips out on the rent but leaves behind a treasure trove of books. He also starred in Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (1948), playing the father of the murder victim. During the 1950s came television (Lux Video Theater, General Electric Theater and Alfred Hitchcock Presents), biblical spectacle films like Salome (1953) and The Ten Commandments (1956) and Shakespearian roles, like Olivier's Richard III (1955), in which he played King Edward IV.

Cedric Hardwicke continued to work until his death. His final film was The Pumpkin Eater (1964) in which he played Anne Bancroft's ill father. Hardwicke won excellent reviews for his final film but died soon after on August 6, 1964. He was married twice; first to Helena Pickard in 1928, with whom he had his son, Edward, best known for playing Dr. Watson opposite Jeremy Brett in the BBC television series Sherlock Holmes. His second wife was Mary Scott, another actress whom he married in 1950. Both marriages ended in divorce.

by Lorraine LoBianco

SOURCES:
Monush, Barry Screen World Presents The Encyclopedia of Hollywood Film Actors: From the Silent Era to 1965 Silvester, Christopher The Grove Book of Hollywood
Troyan, Michael A Rose for Mrs. Miniver: the Life of Greer Garson
White, Rob and Buscombe, Edward British Film Institute Classics Vol. 1 Wise, James E. and Baron, Scott International Stars at War