September 1st, 2010

“Champagne offers a minimum of alcohol and a maximum of companionship.” – David Niven

David Niven was born in London in 1910, and was named after the saint’s day on which he was born – 1st March. He was educated at Stowe and then at Sandhurst, and served in Malta for two years with the Highland Light Infantry. When the second world war broke out Niven rejoined the army, serving in the Rifle Brigade, even though by then he was a star. He saw service at Dunkirk, joined the commandos and later on became part of the secret Phantom Reconnaissance Regiment, a tough hit-and-run group that spent most of their time behind German lines. He made two ‘propaganda’ films during the war – The First of the Few, and The Way Ahead – and on his return to Hollywood after the war was made a Legionnaire of the Order of Merit, the highest American order than can be awarded to a foreigner.

After the war he was rarely out of work. His 1956 appearance as Philias Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days brought him lasting popularity; he won the Best Actor Academy Award in 1958, and among other films appeared in The Guns of Navarone (1961), The Pink Panther (1963), as 007 in the James Bond spoof Casino Royale in 1967, continuing in films and television until the early 1980s when he made cameo appearances in The Trail of the Pink Panther and The Curse of the Pink Panther. By that time he was having serious health problems, and his voice had to be dubbed. That was the last film he made, and he died in Switzerland in 1983.

Photo credit: hmptvimages.com