Eric Portman


Eric Harrison Portman was an English stage and screen actor. He is probably best remembered for his roles in three films for Powell and Pressburger during the 1940s. He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance in Separate Tables.
BFI Screenonline described him as "an unlikely box-office attraction in the 1940s, when audiences admired his polished, distinctive voice and portrayals of disturbed, complex characters."

Early life

Born in Halifax, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Portman was the second son of Matthew Portman, a wool merchant, and his wife, Alice, née Harrison. His birth was registered with the middle name of Harold but he would later adopt his mother's maiden name as his middle name.

Education

He was educated at Rishworth School in Yorkshire and, in 1922, started work as a salesman in the menswear department at the Marshall & Snelgrove department store in Leeds and acted in the amateur Halifax Light Opera Society.

Career

He made his professional stage debut in 1924 with Henry Baynton's company. In 1924, Robert Courtneidge's Shakespearian company arrived in Halifax. Portman joined the company as a 'passenger' and appeared in their production of Richard II at the Victoria Hall, Sunderland which led to Courtneidge giving him a contract. Portman made his West End debut at the Savoy Theatre in London, in September 1924, as Antipholous of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors. He was engaged by Lilian Baylis for the Old Vic Company. In 1928, Portman played Romeo at the rebuilt Old Vic. He became a successful theatre actor. In 1933, Portman was in Diplomacy at the Prince's Theatre with Gerald du Maurier and Basil Rathbone.
In the 1930s, he began appearing in films, starting with an uncredited bit in The Girl from Maxim's directed by Alexander Korda. In 1935, he appeared in four films, including Maria Marten, or The Murder in the Red Barn with Tod Slaughter. He also made Hyde Park Corner with Gordon Harker and directed by Sinclair Hill; Old Roses and Abdul the Damned.
In 1936 Portman had a stage hit playing Lord Byron in Bitter Harvest. After Hearts of Humanity, he played Giuliano de' Medici in Hill's The Cardinal. Portman made another film with Tod Slaughter, The Crimes of Stephen Hawke, and was in Moonlight Sonata.
He went to the US and played in Madame Bovary on Broadway for the Theatre Guild of America. He also had a small role in The Prince and the Pauper, but disliked Hollywood and did not stay long.
He was back on Broadway in I Have Been Here Before by J. B. Priestley. Portman's last London stage show was Jeannie.
In the semi-autobiographical play Dinner with Ribbentrop by screenwriter Norman Hudis, a former personal assistant to Portman, Hudis relates a claim made often by Portman that in 1937, before the start of the Second World War, he had had dinner in London with Joachim von Ribbentrop. Portman claimed that Ribbentrop had told him that "when Germany wins the war, Portman would be installed as the greatest English star in the New Europe" at a purpose-built film studio in Berlin.
In 1941 he had his first important film role playing Lieutenant Hirth, a Nazi on the run, in Powell and Pressburger's 49th Parallel, which was a big hit in the US and Britain. Portman was established as a star and signed a long-term contract with Gainsborough Pictures.
Portman was in Powell and Pressburger's follow up, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing, which reworked the story of The 49th Parallel to be about Allied pilots in occupied Holland. He played a Belgian resistance leader in Uncensored from director Anthony Asquith, and a German pilot in Squadron Leader X with director Lance Comfort. Portman was a sailor in Asquith's We Dive at Dawn and a factory supervisor in Millions Like Us from Launder and Gilliat. He was in another war story in Comfort's Escape to Danger, then was back with Powell and Pressburger for A Canterbury Tale. Portman had the lead in Great Day with Flora Robson and in the expensive colonial epic Men of Two Worlds.
In 1945, exhibitors voted him the 10th most popular star at the British box office. He maintained that ranking the following year.
He made some thrillers – Wanted for Murder, Dear Murderer and The Mark of Cain. He was a hangman in Daybreak, then made Corridor of Mirrors and The Blind Goddess. He made two films for the new producing team of Maxwell Setton and Aubrey Baring, The Spider and the Fly and Cairo Road. Portman was one of many names in The Magic Box and then made an Ealing comedy, His Excellency, playing a trade unionist who becomes Governor of a British colony. For Baring and Setton, he made South of Algiers then had a big hit on stage in Terence Rattigan's Separate Tables and on film in The Colditz Story. Portman had a supporting part in The Deep Blue Sea and Child in the House. He had the lead in The Good Companions.
He played the bogus Major in Terence Rattigan's play Separate Tables in 1956–57 on Broadway. For this performance, he was nominated for a Tony Award. In 1958 he appeared on Broadway in a short-lived production of Jane Eyre as Rochester. Portman had better luck the following year in a production of Eugene O'Neill's A Touch of the Poet, which had a long run. In contrast, Flowering Cherry by Robert Bolt, with Portman in the title role, only lasted five performances on Broadway.
Later film roles included in The Naked Edge, Freud: The Secret Passion, West 11, The Man Who Finally Died, The Bedford Incident, and The Spy with a Cold Nose.
In 1962 Portman was in a stage adaptation of A Passage to India that ran for 109 performances on Broadway.
Near the end of his life he played character roles including Number Two in the TV series The Prisoner, appearing in the episode "Free For All", as well as films including The Whisperers and Deadfall, both for director Bryan Forbes. His final film was Assignment to Kill.

Personal life

In the early 1920s Portman was an amateur in Halifax Light Opera. While there he was romantically involved with Eliza Jane Thornton, his leading lady. After appearing in The Silver Box together, they both went to London to work professionally, though eventually Thornton returned to Halifax. Decades after Portman's death in 1969, it emerged that he was gay and that assistant director Knox Laing was his partner.

Death

Portman died at age 68 at his home in St Veep, Cornwall on 7 December 1969 from heart disease. He was buried in St. Veep parish church.

Honours

A blue plaque was erected by the Halifax Civic Trust.

Complete filmography

  • The Girl from Maxim's
  • Old Roses as Lou
  • Abdul the Damned as Young Turk Conspirator
  • Hyde Park Corner as Edward Chester
  • Maria Marten, or The Murder in the Red Barn as Carlos
  • The Cardinal as Giuliano de' Medici
  • The Crimes of Stephen Hawke as Matthew Trimble
  • Hearts of Humanity as Jack Clinton
  • Moonlight Sonata as Mario de la Costa
  • The Prince and the Pauper as First Lord
  • The Singing Marine as Derelict firing gun in stage show
  • The Constant Nymph
  • A Hundred Years Old as Trino
  • The Rivals as Captain Absolute
  • The Gamblers as Iharyof
  • She Stoops to Conquer as Young Marlow
  • A Night at the Hardcastles as Young Marlow
  • The Pelican as Charles Cheriton
  • 49th Parallel as Lieutenant Hirth, U-Boat Crew
  • One of Our Aircraft Is Missing as Tom Earnshaw
  • Uncensored as Andre Delange
  • Squadron Leader X as Erich Kohler
  • We Dive at Dawn as S. Hobson
  • Millions Like Us as Charlie Forbes
  • Escape to Danger as Arthur Lawrence
  • A Canterbury Tale as Thomas Colpeper, JP
  • Great Day as Captain John Ellis
  • Wanted for Murder as Victor James Colebrooke, aka Tom Maren
  • Men of Two Worlds as District Commissioner Randall
  • Dear Murderer as Lee Warren
  • The Mark of Cain as Richard Howard
  • Corridor of Mirrors as Paul Mangin
  • Daybreak as Eddie
  • The Blind Goddess as Sir John Dearing, KC
  • The Spider and the Fly as Fernand Maubert
  • Cairo Road as Youssef Bey
  • The Magic Box as Arthur Collings
  • His Excellency as George Harrison
  • South of Algiers
  • The Colditz Story
  • The Deep Blue Sea
  • Child in the House
  • The Good Companions
  • Alfred Hitchcock Presents as Sir Richard Musgrave
  • The Naked Edge as Jeremy Clay
  • Freud: The Secret Passion as Dr. Theodore Meynert
  • August for the People as Sir Augustus Thwaites
  • West 11 as Richard Dyce
  • The Man Who Finally Died as Inspector Hofmeister
  • The Bedford Incident as Commodore Wolfgang Schrepke
  • The Spy with a Cold Nose as British Ambassador
  • The Whisperers as Archie Ross
  • ITV Play of the Week as Dr. David Sorel
  • The Prisoner Number Two
  • Assignment to Kill as Notary
  • Deadfall as Moreau