Miles Malleson

Biography

Malleson was born in Croydon, Surrey, England, the son of Edmund Taylor Malleson (1859-1909), a manufacturing chemist, and Myrrha Bithynia Frances Borrell (1863-1931), a descendant of the numismatist Henry Perigal Borrell and the inventor Francis Maceroni. (Miles' cousin and contemporary Lucy Malleson had a long career as a mystery novelist, mostly under the pen name "Anthony Gilbert".)

He was educated at Brighton College and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, he created a sensation when it was discovered that he had successfully posed as a politician and given a speech instead of the visitor who had failed to attend a debating society dinner.

Malleson made his first appearance on stage as an actor in September 1911, turning professional two months later. He studied acting at Herbert Beerbohm Tree's Academy of Dramatic Art, which later was renamed the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Here he met his first wife in 1913. In September 1914 he enlisted in the Army, and was sent to Malta, but was invalided home and discharged in January 1915. By June 1916 he was writing in support of conscientious objectors.

He married three times and had many relationships. In 1915, he married writer and aspiring actress Lady Constance Malleson. Like her, he was interested in social reform, one of his plays being on the subject of the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Theirs was an open marriage and they divorced amicably in 1923 so that he could marry Joan Billson; they divorced in 1940. His third wife was Tatiana Lieven, whom he married in 1946 and from whom he had been separated for several years at the time of his death.

He was tall and slender, but with a strongly receding chin and a sharp nose that produced the effect of a double chin like that of Robert Morley, who was not slender. His manner was gentle and absent-minded; his voice, soft and high. He is best remembered for his roles as the Sultan in The Thief of Bagdad (1940), the poetically-inclined hangman in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) and as Dr. Chasuble in The Importance of Being Earnest (1952).

Failing eyesight led to his being unable to work in his last years. He died in March 1969 following surgery to remove cataracts and was cremated in a private ceremony. A memorial service was held at St Martin-in-the-Fields during which Sybil Thorndike and Laurence Olivier both gave readings.

As playwright

Malleson's only published work as screenwriter appears to be "Lawrence of Arabia from Revolt in the Desert by T.E. Lawrence; Scenario by Miles Malleson, Brian Desmond Hurst and Duncan Guthrie October 4th 1938" in Filming T.E. Lawrence: Korda's Lost Epics; Edited and introduced by Andrew Kelly, James Pepper and Jeffrey Richards. London/New York: I.B. Tauris Publishers, 1997.