Roddy McDowall

British actor Roddy McDowall (1928-1998) began his film career as a child actor and continued it successfully as an adult. McDowall spent most of his life in the United States. He became widely known through the Planet of the Apes films. McDowall appeared in some 250 productions during his long career.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 126. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.


Dutch postcard by Gebr. Spanjersberg N.V., Rotterdam. Roddy McDowall and Pal in Lassie Come Home (Fred M. Wilcox, 1943).

Elocution courses at age five

Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude ‘Roddy’ McDowall was born in 1928 in London. He was the second child of theatre-loving parents, Thomas Andrew McDowall, a merchant seaman, and Winifred L. Corcoran, an aspiring actress. He had one sister, Virginia. Young Roddy was enrolled in elocution courses at age five. After winning an acting prize in a school play at age nine, he made his film debut in Murder in the Family (Albert Parker, 1938). He was just ten years old when he played Peter Osborne, the younger brother of sisters played by Jessica Tandy and Glynis Johns.

Hal Erickson on AllMovie: "He appeared in 16 roles of varying sizes and importance before he and his mother and sister were evacuated to the U.S. during the 1940 Battle of Britain. McDowall arrival in Hollywood coincided with the wishes of 20th Century-Fox executive Darryl F. Zanuck to create a 'new Freddie Bartholomew'."

Roddy soon got the part of 'Huw', the youngest child in a family of Welsh coal miners in How Green Was My Valley (John Ford, 1941) alongside Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, and Donald Crisp. Ford's drama about the disintegration of a Welsh family of miners won five Oscars, including the Oscar for Best Film. McDowall went on to star in other films, such as My Friend Flicka (Harold D. Schuster, 1943), The Keys of the Kingdom (John M. Stahl, 1944), and The White Cliffs of Dover (Clarence Brown, 1944).

In Lassie Come Home (Fred M. Wilcox, 1943), he played alongside Elizabeth Taylor in her film debut. They remained friends for the rest of his life. Taylor has since referred to him as the one friend she had to whom she confided everything, and who was always understanding. They reunited on screen in the mammoth production of Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963). McDowall was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role as Octavian, the later Emperor of Rome Caesar Augustus.

Roddy's schooling took place on the 20th Century Fox studio lot, though he graduated from University High School in West Los Angeles in 1947. McDowall's first adult acting assignment was as Malcolm in Orson Welles' film version of Macbeth (1948). Shortly afterward, he formed a production company with Macbeth co-star Dan O'Herlihy. He became a naturalised United States citizen in 1949 and moved to New York. There he played a long series of successful stage roles, both on Broadway and in such venues as Connecticut's Stratford Festival, where he did Shakespeare. He had a big critical success with 'Compulsion' (1957–1958) based on the Leopold and Loeb case and he won a Tony Award in 1960 for his role in Peter Brook's 'The Fighting Cock'.


American Arcade card.


British postcard in the Picturegoer Series, London, no. W 465. Photo: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

A chimpanzee archaeologist

In the 1960s and 1970s, Roddy McDowall appeared in several Disney features, including the title role in the Western comedy The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin (James Neilson, 1967). He became widely known through his role as the chimpanzee archaeologist Cornelius in Planet of the Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1969) and three of its four sequels despite being in different roles. He later also appeared as Galen in the Planet of the Apes television series (1974).

He appeared in other successful productions such as The Longest Day (Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki, a.o., 1962), The Poseidon Adventure (Ronald Neame, 1972) and the Agatha Christie mystery Evil Under the Sun (Gary Nelson, 1982). He was also a sought-after voice actor for feature films and animated films, including as the voice of the robot V.I.N.CENT. in The Black Hole (Gary Nelson, 1979) and he voiced the ant ‘Mr. Soil’ in A Bug’s Life (John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, 1998), one of his last films.

He also made many guest appearances in television programmes over the years, including Batman (1966) in which he played the villain The Bookworm, The Invaders (1967), Columbo (1972) and Code Quantum (1992). McDowall was also known as a photographer and published five books of photographs, one of them with celebrity friends Elizabeth Taylor, Judy Garland, Judy Holliday and Maureen O'Hara.

In 1974, McDowall was accused of illegally distributing film copies. The FBI raided his home and confiscated his extensive film collection of 16mm reels and video cassettes, which he had amassed as a film fan and collector. At the time, there was no market for video cassettes as players were not yet freely available. Studios routinely destroyed old negatives and prints of classic films they felt had no worth. Film buffs like McDowall had to purchase 16mm prints of films from the studios, movie prints on the black market, or from other collectors. One of the films he had purchased, from American-International Pictures, was The Ballad of Tam Lin (1970), which he had directed. No charges were brought against him as McDowall cooperated with the FBI.

In the 1990s, McDowall became a film conservator and was involved in the restoration of Cleopatra (1963), which had been cut by 20th Century Fox's Darryl F. Zanuck because of high production costs. McDowall served for several years in various capacities on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood, the organisation that awards the Oscars. He was chairman of the Actors Division for five terms. He was elected President of the Academy Foundation the year of his death. One of his last public appearances was when he accompanied 88-year-old actress Luise Rainer to the 70th Academy Awards ceremony. In 1998, Roddy McDowall, a lifelong smoker, died of lung cancer at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 70. The actor was unmarried and had no children, but was known for his large circle of friends. He was in a relationship with American actor Montgomery Clift for several years in the early 1950s. Elizabeth Taylor introduced them. He was cremated after his death by The Neptune Society, and his ashes were placed in an undersea memorial by the Trident Society.


Spanish postcard by CyA, no. 52. Photo: 20th Century Fox.


Spanish postcard by Archivo Bermejo, no. C-144, 1964. Photo: 20th Century Fox. Publicity still for Cleopatra (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1963).


British postcard by Art, no. 247. Photo: Roddy McDowall, 1964. Elizabeth Taylor.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Ed Stephan (IMDb), Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.