Born in 1909 Yorkshire into a family that had been in the wool mill business for generations, he fought permanently joining them year after year. He worked at a number of odd jobs through most of his 20's until he manipulated a meeting with a casting director who found him work as an extra. Somehow he thought he might give acting a try.
Despite receiving compliments on how handsome and athletic he was, Rennie languished in British films in mainly small, uncredited roles for most of the 1930's. He also performed in numerous stage productions in the hope of learning all he could about his chosen profession. He took a break to enter WWII for three years.
After discharge he was eager to return to films and determined to raise his marquee value. It increased substantially after he costarred with one of England's most respected actresses, Margaret Lockwood (virtually unknown in the States), in two successful back-to-back films. The first was the musical I'll Be Your Sweetheart followed by the period drama The Wicked Lady, both in 1945. The latter was the first of five films in which Rennie would costar with James Mason.
In 1944 his wife divorced him not necessarily for the affair he was having but because it produced a son.
He appeared in his first American film (although it was filmed in England) in 1950, The Black Rose. As King Edward he was completely overshadowed by stars Tyrone Power and Orson Welles. Power, knowing that American film studios were looking to hire more European actors, suggested to his boss, Darryl Zanuck, that Rennie might be a good fit at 20th. Zanuck signed Rennie to a contract and the actor and Power became good friends.
The two would work together again in a romantic time traveler film I'll Never Forget You (1951). (No, they weren't having the romance... that was Power and Ann Blyth.) Rennie had a good role in the Otto Preminger-directed film noir, The 13th Letter (1951), co-starring Linda Darnell, in which he plays a doctor who receives a series of poison-pen letters.
Next up, also in 1951, was the role for which Michael Rennie would become world-famous. He received top billing in the science fiction classic The Day the Earth Stood Still. As the alien Klaatu he arrives on Earth to warn of humanity's place in the universe and of Earth's responsibility to maintain peaceful coexistence. Most sci-fi fans would probably consider this one to be the gold standard for the future of the genre.
Phone Call from a Stranger is one of those movies I remember seeing in my year of truly discovering them, 1952. Rennie played an alcoholic doctor, one of three survivors of a plane crash in an engaging film noir. In the cat-and-mouse war thriller, Five Fingers (1952), he was the man who tracked down spy James Mason.
Having given Fox all it seemed to want in a leading man, Rennie was excited that the studio elected to produce a version of Les Miserables (1952) especially for him to star as Valjean. It only did fair business but history has not been kind. He was paired with studio ingenue, Debra Paget, whom the studio was also attempting to build into a top-tier star. Fox must have thought Rennie was her good-luck charm since they were paired in four films.
Perhaps no one disputed this man had a most soothing voice and the studio used it for voice-over narration in several early-50's hits... The Desert Fox, Pony Soldier, Titanic, The Desert Rats and Prince Valiant.
Fox loved its film noirs and Dangerous Crossing (1953) was a decent one. Jeanne Crain stars as a shipboard wife whose husband mysteriously goes into hiding and she's accused of his murder. Rennie is most reassuring as the ship's captain.
He had a showy role as St. Peter in Fox's first Cinemascope production, the much-lauded The Robe (1953), and its well-done sequel, Demetrius and the Gladiators (1954). Once more the two films provided Rennie with a great deal more visibility but the truth was he hadn't set the film world on fire as a leading man. He was nearly 40 when he began his American career and without question that was too late to ignite the fluttering hearts of young female moviegoers. As a result, I suspect 20th lost a bit of interest in promoting him.
In 1954 while Rennie was on location his mother-in-law (he had married a second time), who had been staying in his flat while hers was being painted, was strangled with nylon hosiery. The killer was never caught although suspicions fell to a serial killer who had lived in the area.
American director Robert Rossen wanted to make a film about a Cuban dance that was making new inroads in the mid-50's. The title was Mambo (1954), and he went to Italy to do it. I saw it because I was bewitched by Silvana Mangano although I had never seen her work. She plays a shop girl who dreams of becoming a dancer. She is involved in two relationships, one with a sleazy croupier (Vittorio Gassman) and another involving a wealthy count (Rennie). It was not anything close to being a success but it fascinated my curious, young mind.
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| He, too, was bewitched by Silvana Mangano in Mambo |
Just for sheer entertainment, Seven Cities of Gold (1955), about the Spanish attempt to own the land to be known as California, delivers. Rennie, as real-life Father Junipero Serra, looking a great deal as he did in the St. Peter pic above, was joined by Anthony Quinn, Richard Egan and Jeffrey Hunter for the adventure.
I have recently reviewed both The Rains of Ranchipur (1955) and Island in the Sun (1957), two films I enjoyed with Rennie in good supporting roles. The latter would be his final film under his Fox contract.
The year 1959 would be a changing one for the dapper Mr. Rennie. He was just recovering from sometimes unsavory reportage of being named as a third party to his former director Otto Preminger's counter-suit of adultery against Preminger's ex-wife. The thing was she had been dating Rennie for awhile. It's been said the always-vengeful tyrannical director helped Rennie slip down one more rung on the Hollywood ladder. After two divorces, Rennie had been thoroughly enjoying bachelorhood until Mary Preminger came along.
He fell in love with Switzerland when he was there to film Disney's Third Man on the Mountain (1959), a mountaineer adventure that, while Rennie was top-billed, featured James MacArthur as the star. He would move to Switzerland in a couple of years and for the rest of his life.
The same year also saw him doing his only Broadway show, the marital comedy, Mary, Mary. He was thrilled with the play but his glow dimmed after several hospital stays for breathing issues. As a lifelong heavy smoker, it wouldn't be too much longer before the word emphysema would enter his vocabulary. When the 1963 film was released, he and leading man Barry Nelson reprised their screen roles with Debbie Reynolds and Diane McBain joining in on the barb-laden fun.
Lastly in 1959 he began a BBC series (77 episodes) The Third Man. He played Harry Lime, the same character Orson Welles played in the 1949 film. For the telly Harry is upgraded to a stylish cad. Along with The Day the Earth Stood Still, this is the other work for which Rennie is most famous.
He certainly didn't do himself any favors returning to Fox one last time for the sophomoric The Lost World (1960). He had top billing and the movie's lack of remuneration reassured Hollywood that he could not carry a film.
He spent much of the rest of his life being the perfect gentleman on television and doing B movies. The all-star, much-hyped and glittering Hotel (1967) was a perfect match for him.
In June, 1971, he traveled from his Swiss home to the family flat in Yorkshire to be with his mother while they grieved the death of Rennie's brother. It was there that the actor suffered a fatal heart attack, brought on by his emphysema. He was two months away from his 62nd birthday.
Probably Michael Rennie never found the great acclaim he was seeking because he was just a little too polished, a bit too lacking in liveliness and arrived on the scene too late. He offered almost no surprises in his acting as, say, his pal Mason did. While he was similar to David Niven in many ways, he clearly did not have Niven's humor or ability to poke fun at himself. Still, I always found him a joy to watch. Since I was such a fan of 20th Century Fox and its stable of stars, I saw nearly all of his films from the 1950's.
Next posting:
Almost Famous IV
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