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The British actor David Niven (1910–1983) performed in many genres of light entertainment, including film, radio and theatre. He was also the author of four books: two works of fiction and two autobiographies. Described by Brian McFarlane, writing for the British Film Institute (BFI), as being "of famously debonair manner", Niven's career spanned from 1932 until 1983.
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After brief spells as an army officer, whisky salesman and with a horse racing syndicate, he was an uncredited extra in his screen debut in There Goes the Bride; he went on to appear in nearly a hundred films, the last of which was in 1983: Curse of the Pink Panther. During his long film career, he was presented with a Golden Globe Award for his part in The Moon Is Blue (1953) and was nominated for a BAFTA for the titular lead in Carrington V.C. (1955). For his role as Major Pollock in the 1958 film Separate Tables, Niven was awarded the Academy and Golden Globe awards for a performance where "the pain behind the fake polish was moving to observe". According to Sheridan Morley, Niven's other notable works include The Charge of the Light Brigade (1938), The Way Ahead (1944), A Matter of Life and Death (1946)—judged by the BFI to be one of the top twenty British films of all time—The Guns of Navarone (1961) and the role of Sir Charles Litton in three Pink Panther films.
Niven lived much of his life in the United States, although upon the outbreak of the Second World War, he returned to Britain to fight, and was re-commissioned as a lieutenant in the Highland Light Infantry. At the end of the war he returned to the US and continued his film work, but increasingly appeared on American radio and television channels, and later on their British counterparts. In the latter medium he appeared frequently in the Four Star Playhouse series, as well as producing some editions. For his roles in both television and on film, Niven was honoured with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He died in 1983 from a virulent form of motor neurone disease at the age of 73.