Kenneth Gilbert More, CBE, was an English film and stage actor. Initially achieving fame in the comedy Genevieve, he appeared in many roles as a carefree, happy-go-lucky gent. He enjoyed a revival in the much-acclaimed TV adaptation of The Forsyte Saga and the Father Brown series.
About Kenneth More in brief
Kenneth Gilbert More, CBE, was an English film and stage actor. Initially achieving fame in the comedy Genevieve, he appeared in many roles as a carefree, happy-go-lucky gent. His career declined in the early 1960s, two of his own favourite films date from this time – The Comedy Man and The Greengage Summer. He also enjoyed a revival in the much-acclaimed TV adaptation of The Forsyte Saga and the Father Brown series. More was the only son of Charles Gilbert More and Edith Winifred Watkins, the daughter of a Cardiff solicitor. He was educated at Victoria College, Jersey, having spent part of his childhood in the Channel Islands, where his father was general manager of the Jersey Eastern Railway. After he left school, he followed the family tradition by training as a civil engineer. He gave up his training and worked for a while in Sainsbury’s on the Strand. When More was 17 his father died, and he applied to join the Royal Air Force, but failed the medical test for equilibrium. He then travelled to Canada, intending to work as a fur trapper, but was sent back because he lacked immigration papers. On his return from Canada, a business associate of his father, Vivian Van Damm, agreed to offer him work at the Windmill Theatre. He played there for a year, which then led to regular work in repertory, including Newcastle, performing in plays such as Burke and Hare and Dracula’s Daughter.
More continued his theatre work until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. He had the occasional bit part in films such as Look Up and Laugh. More received a commission as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and saw active service aboard the cruiser HMS Aurora and the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious. On demobilisation in 1946 he appeared on stage in the West End in And No Birds Sing. More achieved a notable stage success in The Way Things Go with Ronald Squire, from whom More later claimed he learned his stage technique. More had a good part as a British agent in The Clouded Yellow for Ralph Thomas. He could also be seen in The Franchise Affair and Galloping Major Thomas. More’s first Hollywood-financed film was No Highway in the Sky where he played a co-pilot. He achieved above title billing for the first time with a low budget comedy, Appointment with Venus, playing a smuggler playing a Parson Parson in the film Never Let Me Go. The Deep Blue Sea was a successful play by Terence Rattigan, and achieved tremendous critical acclaim in the run of the play’s run. During the run he appeared as a worried parent in a thriller, The Yellow Balloon, The Blue Blue Sea and The Blue Gable. More played Badger in a TV adaptation of Toad of Toad Hall and the film School for Secrets, and was seen by Noël Coward playing a small role in Power Without Glory.
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