Godfrey Tearle, 1884-1953

Godfrey Tearle (l.) and Robert Donat in The 39 Steps (1935)

Today marks the birth anniversary of actor Godfrey Tearle, who was in quite a few movies, although many of them are British movies that I have to admit to not having even heard of let alone seen. Perhaps his best known appearance is as the bad guy who can be recognized because he's missing a finger in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps. He's also in One of Our Aircraft is Missing, a Michael Powell movie that I think I've got on DVD, so I'm going to have to watch that one sometime, right after everything else I've got in my backlog of movies to get to.

Tearle was also the half-brother of silent star Conway Tearle whose career extended into the 1930s with his final role being in MGM's extravagant production of Romeo and Juliet. Godfrey was also a Shakespearean stage actor who was, from what I read, acclaimed, but of course none of those appearances survive for any of us to judge. Apparently a portion of Romeo and Juliet was filmed, although as far as I can tell it's a lost film.