STEWART GRANGER (JAMES LABLACHE STEWART) (1913-1993) -

DISTINGUISHED FILM ACTOR AND ‘STAR OF THE SILVER SCREEN.’

“Stewart Granger was one of the greatest British stars of the Forties, and went on to become one of

the handful to achieve true international stardom in Hollywood.

The Independent (1993).

When during the Malvern Festival (1936-1937), George Bernard Shaw praised the performance of

Stewart Granger in his role as Magnus in The Apple Cart, the actor remarked later that ‘I learned

acting in the reps, where the audience teaches you – particularly timing.’

James Lablache Stewart (Stewart Granger) was born in The Boltons, London on the 6th March, 1913,

the only son of Major James Stewart, OBE, and his wife Frederica Eliza (née Lablache). His great-

great grandfather was the famous opera singer Luigi Lablache, and grandfather the actor Luigi

Lablache. He was also the uncle of Bunny Campione, a Senior Consultant at the fine-art auctioneers

Christies, and a stalwart of the television series, Antiques

Roadshow.

James Stewart entered Epsom College in 1923, largely on

the advice of the family doctor, Dr V. A. L. E. Corbould,

MD, who was himself at Epsom from 1881 to 1885. In his

autobiography James wrote: ‘Doctor’s sons had special

terms and you could start studying for your first MB there

which put you a little ahead of the other students when

you went on to university or hospital...... And here’s an

odd thing. My mother’s grandfather taught Queen

Victoria and her children to sing and Corbould’s father

taught them to paint. That’s why the poor man had all

those names. Victor after Her Majesty, Albert after her

husband, Louis after Princess Louise, his godmother, and

Edward after the Prince of Wales.’ James remembered his

first days at the College and in particular the initiation

known as ‘the new boy’s concert,’ at which ‘the older

boys sat around tables, eating baked beans or eggs or

whatever, which they had cooked up themselves, and on the side had prepared lumps of soggy

bread dipped in some horrible concoction which smelt and stuck and oozed when it was thrown at

the new boys – us. We had to stand on a table, recite a poem, tell a joke and sing a song. Naturally

the victims would recite some dreary verse, tell an awful flat joke, and sing quaveringly and off-key.

The worse they were, the more the audience would enjoy it and pelt them with their specially

prepared ammunition.’ ‘Well,’ James went on to write: ‘I was going to be different,’ and in his

detailed account it appears that his effort was well received by the older boys. ‘Shocked silence. No

laughter. No bread throwing. Nothing. I noticed that some of the more senior boys were looking at

me with a sort of amused admiration. I thanked them politely and got out of there as quickly as I

could.’ During his time at Epsom College James Stewart became an all-round sportsman, a member

of the Rugby XV as well as the swimming, boxing and gymnastics teams. Although his early ambition

was to become a medical or surgical specialist, his father became financially embarrassed following

unsuccessful investments, and explained that he might not be able to afford the necessary university

or medical school fees. As a result of this upset James sought a new career and on the advice of a

school friend started out as a film extra at the inglorious salary of a guinea a day.

Epsom College Rugby XV (1928). Stewart Granger is fourth from right, back row.

Working as a film extra aroused James’s interest in acting and he won a scholarship to the Webber-

Douglas School of Dramatic Art. For the next seven years he worked in repertory, firstly at Hull and

then Birmingham, with his London debut at Drury Lane in 1938, but at the onset of the Second

World War he enlisted in the Gordon Highlanders before being transferred to the Black Watch with

the rank of Second Lieutenant. James Stewart made his film debut in 1933, as an extra, but as soon

as he became an actor he was obliged to change his name to avoid being confused with the

American actor James Stewart. Granger, the name that he selected was his Scottish grandmother’s

maiden name, and to the general public he now became Stewart Granger. In 1943, Granger played

his first starring role in the period melodrama The Man in Grey. This proved to be extremely

successful, and two years later he played Niccolo Paganini, the celebrated violinist, in The Magic Bow

(illustration).

In an obituary notice, The Independent newspaper noted that ‘Granger’s dashing good looks,

energy, humour and the arrogance

that laced his romantic ardour made

him the British cinema’s foremost

sex symbol, with a huge teenage

following, and in Hollywood he took

his place among the greatest

swashbucklers with at least one of

his movies, Scaramouche (1952), a

masterpiece.’ It was in 1949 that

Granger first made his move to

Hollywood, when he was invited to

play the part of H. Rider Haggard’s

hero Allan Quatermaine in the film

version of King Solomon’s Mines.

This film proved such a success that

he was immediately offered a seven-

year contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1950 he married Jean Simmons in a bizarre wedding

ceremony organised by the eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, and it was at about this time that

Stewart Granger introduced Jean Simmons to Epsom College. One Saturday afternoon in the early

1950s, they appeared on the touchline at a 1st XV match. Although recognised and mobbed by the

boys, there is an apocryphal account of Granger’s introduction to Henry Franklin. Apparently the

headmaster had no idea who the visitor was as he politely asked him at which hospital he was

working. In 1952, Stewart Granger made possibly his finest film, Scaramouche, based on the classic

novel by Rafael Sabatini. He had read the book as a child and gave a swashbuckling performance to

rank with the best. ‘Sumptuously produced and directed with visual panache, the film builds

excitingly to its memorable climax, a seven-minute swordfight in a theatre taking the protagonists

over the boxes, through corridors, down the immense foyer staircase and finally onto the stage

where props and curtains are slashed in this great action sequence’. Immediately after filming

Scaramouche, Granger joined Deborah Kerr and James Mason in The Prisoner of Zenda, a remake of

the classic 1937 film version, which provided him with another fine heroic role and an exciting final

sabre duel. So keen was Stewart Granger to master the art of fencing before making these two films

that he took lessons from a retired Olympic fencing champion. The result of this was that perhaps

the only actor superior to him in fencing was said to be Basil Rathbone.

Stewart Granger’s career in films lasted until 1978 when he played the villain in The Wild Geese,

alongside his old friend Richard Burton, and after this he returned to the theatre, touring England

and then making an acclaimed Broadway debut in Somerset Maugham’s The Circle, with Rex

Harrison and Glynis Johns. Stewart Granger, together with Jean Simmons, became a naturalized

citizen of the United States in 1956, although he renounced his American citizenship in 1967. He

died in Santa Monica, California in 1993, at the age of 80.