The White Sister

Though Ronald Colman had done theatre plays and already appeared in two minor films in England, in 1920 set out for New York in hopes of finding greater fortune there than in war-depressed England. After two years of impoverishment, he was cast in a Broadway hit, "La Tendress", in which film director Henry King spotted him and cast him as Lillian Gish's leading man in this film. His success in the movie led to a contract with Samuel Goldwyn, and his career as a Hollywood leading man was underway. He quickly became a romantic lead and especially thrived in the sound era with his beautiful speaking voice. A decade later, under George Cukor's direction, he received an Academy Award® for his splendid portrayal of a tormented actor in A Double Life (1947).

Referenced in Century of Cinema: Die Nacht der Regisseure (1995)