Montagu Love


Harry Montague Love, known professionally as Montagu Love, was a British screen and stage actor and illustrator.

Early years

Harry Montague Love was born on 15 March 1877 in Southsea, Portsmouth, to Harry Love, an accountant, and Fanny Louisa Love.

Career

Educated in Great Britain, Love began his career as an artist, with his first important job as an illustrator for The Illustrated Daily News in London.
Love's acting debut came with an American company in a production in the Isle of Wight. His Broadway debut occurred in The Second in Command.
He was typically cast in heartless villain roles. In the 1920s, he played with Rudolph Valentino in The Son of the Sheik, opposite John Barrymore in Don Juan, and appeared with Lillian Gish in 1928's The Wind. He also portrayed 'Colonel Ibbetson' in Forever, the silent film version of Peter Ibbetson. Love was one of the more successful villains in silent films.
One of Love's first sound films was the part-talkie The Mysterious Island co-starring Lionel Barrymore. In 1937, he played Henry VIII in the first talking film version of Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper, with Errol Flynn. Love played the bigoted Bishop of the Black Canons in The Adventures of Robin Hood, also starring Flynn. However, he also played gruff authoritarian figures, such as Monsieur Cavaignac, who, contrary to history, demands the resignation of those responsible for the Dreyfus cover-up, in The Life of Emile Zola, as well as Don Alejandro de la Vega, whose son appears to be a fop but is actually Zorro, in the 1940 version of The Mark of Zorro, starring Tyrone Power.
In 1941, he played a doctor in Shining Victory. In 1939's Gunga Din, Montagu Love reads the final stanza of Rudyard Kipling's original poem over the body of the slain Din.
Love's last film to be released, Devotion, was released three years after his death aged 66 in 1943. He was interred at Chapel of the Pines Crematory. His last acting performance was in Wings Over the Pacific.

Personal life and death

On 3 April 1929, Love married Marjorie Love, a stage actress, in Los Angeles.
Besides acting, Montague had a keen interest in drawing and painting. He became very proficient in caricatures of cast mates and also military paintings, primarily those of British military uniforms.

Death

On 17 May 1943, Love died aged 67 at his home in Beverly Hills, California.

Filmography

Silent films

Sound films