Ralph Forbes


Ralph Forbes was an English film and stage actor active in Britain and the United States.

Early life

Forbes was born in Wandsworth, London, the son of Ernest John "E.J." and Ethel Louise Taylor. His mother would become known as Mary Forbes, a stage and film actress. His younger sister was actress Brenda Forbes. Born on 30 September 1904, Forbes was baptized on 6 November and his birth was legally registered with the authorities during the last quarter of 1904.
Forbes met with an accident while playing football at Denstone College in Staffordshire which resulted in a scar on his cheek. He came to the United States as a member of a British troupe that performed Havoc, a war play. He started off in films, then went on stage.
In the United States he appeared onstage opposite actress Ruth Chatterton, whom he wed on 20 December 1924 in New York City. He was 20 years old and she was four days shy of her 32nd birthday. The couple divorced in 1932. He married actress Heather Angel in Yuma, Arizona, on 29 August 1934; that marriage ended in divorce on 18 July 1941. His last wife, whom he married in 1946, was actress Dora Sayers.

Later years

Following a film career that spanned from 1926 to 1944, Forbes’s latter years were given to working on the Broadway stage. One of his last stage appearances was in a revival of Shaw's You Never Can Tell in 1948. He died at Montefiore Hospital in The Bronx, New York, in 1951, aged 46.

Filmography

  • The Fifth Form at St. Dominic's as Oliver Greenfield
  • A Lowland Cinderella as Master of Darrock
  • The Glorious Adventure as Courtier
  • Comin' Thro the Rye as George Tempest
  • Reveille as The Kid
  • Owd Bob as Davie McAdam
  • Charley's Aunt as Jack Chesney
  • Beau Geste as John Geste
  • Mr. Wu as Basil Gregory
  • The Enemy as Carl Behrend
  • The Latest from Paris as Joe Adams
  • The Trail of '98 as Larry
  • Under the Black Eagle as Karl von Zorn
  • The Actress as Arthur Gower
  • The Whip as Lord Brancaster
  • The Masks of the Devil as Manfred
  • Restless Youth as Bruce Neil
  • Lilies of the Field as Ted Willing
  • The Green Goddess as Dr. Traherne
  • Mamba as Karl von Reiden
  • The Lady of Scandal as John
  • Inside the Lines as Eric Woodhouse
  • Her Wedding Night as Larry Charters
  • The Bachelor Father - John Ashley
  • Beau Ideal as John Geste
  • Thunder Below as Davis
  • Smilin'Through as Willie Ainley
  • Christopher Strong as Harry Rawlinson
  • The Phantom Broadcast as Norman Wilder
  • Pleasure Cruise as Richard Orloff aka Taversham
  • The Avenger as Norman Craig
  • The Solitaire Man as Robert Bascom
  • Bombay Mail as William Luke-Patson
  • The Mystery of Mr. X as Sir Christopher Marche
  • Riptide as Fenwick
  • Twentieth Century as George Smith
  • Shock as Derek Marbury
  • The Fountain as Ballater
  • The Barretts of Wimpole Street as Captain Surtees Cook
  • Outcast Lady as Boy Fenwick
  • Strange Wives as Paul
  • Enchanted April as Peppo Briggs
  • Rescue Squad as DeWitt Porter
  • Streamline Express as Fred Arnold
  • The Goose and the Gander as Ralph Summers
  • The Three Musketeers as Duke of Buckingham
  • La Fiesta de Santa Barbara
  • I'll Name the Murderer as Tommy Tilton
  • Mary of Scotland as Randolph
  • Piccadilly Jim as Lord Frederick 'Freddie' Priory
  • Romeo and Juliet as Paris - Young Nobleman Kinsman to the Prince
  • Daniel Boone as Stephen Marlowe
  • Love Letters of a Star as Meredith Landers
  • Rich Relations as Dave Walton
  • The Last of Mrs. Cheyney as Cousin John
  • The Thirteenth Chair as Lionel Trent
  • The Legion of Missing Men as Bob Carter
  • Make a Wish as Walter Mays
  • Woman Against the World as Larry Steele
  • Stage Door as Cast of Stage Play
  • Women Are Like That as Martin Brush
  • Kidnapped as James
  • If I Were King as Oliver Le Dain
  • Annabel Takes a Tour as Viscount Ronald River-Clyde
  • Convicts at Large as David Brent
  • The Hound of the Baskervilles as Sir Hugo Baskerville
  • The Magnificent Fraud as Harrison Todd
  • The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex as Lord Knollys
  • Tower of London as Henry Tudor
  • Calling Philo Vance as Tom McDonald
  • Adventure in Diamonds as Mr. Perrins
  • Curtain Call as Leslie Barrivale
  • Frenchman's Creek as Harry St. Columb