Charles Laughton (1899-1962) was a distinguished British theatre actor whose Hollywood career began in 1932 with scene-stealing turns in The Old Dark House and Devil and the Deep (films which starred two other subjects of this exhibition, Ernest Thesiger and Tallulah Bankhead respectively). In the same prolific year he played the plum roles of Dr Moreau in the H G Wells adaptation Island of Lost Souls, and Emperor Nero in Cecil B DeMille’s Roman epic The Sign of the Cross. Full-blown stardom followed with The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933, winning him the Academy Award for Best Actor), Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939). By the end of the decade Charles Laughton was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Although concealed in his lifetime, Laughton’s bisexuality was later acknowledged, not least by his wife of more than 30 years, the British actor Elsa Lanchester (1902-1986, best remembered for the title role in 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein). The couple often worked together: Lanchester was Anne of Cleves to Laughton’s Oscar-winning Henry VIII, and they both received Oscar nominations for 1957’s Witness for the Prosecution, which featured another of this exhibition’s stars, Marlene Dietrich.

Other films include: The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1934), Jamaica Inn (1939), The Paradine Case (1947), Hobson’s Choice (1954), The Night of the Hunter (1955, as director)

Framed Dimensions: 253mm x 339mm (Unframed: 233mm x 145mm)

Soluble ink on 120gsm Sennelier handmade watercolour paper
Glazed, mounted and framed

Supplied with signed letter of authenticity from Barnaby.

Please note, this is the original artwork by Barnaby. It is unique and not a reproduction.