Patric Knowles

Patric Knowles

1911-11-11 – 1995-12-23 (age 84) Horsforth, Yorkshire, England, UK
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Biography

Reginald Lawrence Knowles (11 November 1911 – 23 December 1995) was an English film actor who renamed himself Patric Knowles, a name which reflects his Irish descent. He appeared in films of the 1930s through the 1970s. He made his film debut in 1933, and played either first or second film leads throughout his career.

In his first American film, Give Me Your Heart (1936), released in Great Britain as Sweet Aloes, Knowles was cast as a titled Englishman of means.

While making The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) at Lone Pine, California, he befriended Errol Flynn, whose acquaintance he had made when both were under contract to Warner Bros. in England. Since that film, in which Knowles played the part of Capt. Perry Vickers, the brother of Flynn's Maj. Geoffrey Vickers, he was cast more frequently as straitlaced characters alongside Flynn's flamboyant ones, notably as Will Scarlet in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938). Both actors starred as well in Four's A Crowd, also in 1938.

More than two decades after Flynn's death, biographer Charles Higham sullied Flynn's memory by accusing him of having been a fascist sympathizer and Nazi spy. Knowles, who had served in World War II as a flying instructor in the RCAF, came to Flynn's defense, writing Rebuttal for a Friend as an epilogue to Tony Thomas' Errol Flynn: The Spy Who Never Was (Citadel Press, 1990) ISBN 080651180X.

Knowles was a freelance film actor from 1939 until his last film appearance in 1973. In the 1940s, he was known for playing protagonists in a number of horror films, including The Wolf Man (1941) and Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman (1943).

Knowles was also cast as comic foils in a number of comedies such as Abbott and Costello's Who Done It? (1942) and Hit The Ice (1943). He also appeared opposite Jack Kelly in a 1957 episode of the television series Maverick called "The Wrecker", which was based on a Robert Louis Stevenson adventure and co-starred James Garner.

Knowles was inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame and wrote a novel called Even Steven (Vantage Press, 1960) ASIN B0006RMC2G. He was cremated. His ashes were either given to a friend or family.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Patric Knowles, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

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Known For

Chisum
Chisum

1970

as Henry Tunstall

The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Adventures of Robin Hood

1938

as Will Scarlett

The Wolf Man
The Wolf Man

1941

as Frank Andrews

Arnold
Arnold

1973

as Douglas Whitehead

The Way West
The Way West

1967

as Captain Grant

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

1943

as Dr. Frank Mannering

Kitty
Kitty

1945

as Brett Harwood Earl of Carstairs

Jamaica Run
Jamaica Run

1953

as William Montague

Auntie Mame
Auntie Mame

1958

as Lindsay Woolsey

The Devil's Brigade
The Devil's Brigade

1968

as Adm. Lord Mountbatten

How Green Was My Valley
How Green Was My Valley

1941

as Ivor Morgan

Quebec
Quebec

1951

as Charles Douglas

Crazy House
Crazy House

1943

as Edmund 'Mac' MacLean

Variety Girl
Variety Girl

1947

as Patric Knowles

The Mystery of Marie Roget
The Mystery of Marie Roget

1942

as Dr. Paul Dupin

Five Came Back
Five Came Back

1939

as Judson Ellis

Another Thin Man
Another Thin Man

1939

as Dudley Horn

Mutiny
Mutiny

1952

as Capt. Ben Waldridge

Band of Angels
Band of Angels

1957

as Charles de Marigny

The Charge of the Light Brigade
The Charge of the Light Brigade

1936

as Captain Perry Vickers