Percy Marmont

Biography

Tall, debonair British matinée idol Percy Marmont first acted on stage in 1900. As a romantic lead from 1916, he made his screen debut while touring South Africa with a theatrical troupe in De Voortrekkers (1916). From there, the players went on to Australia (where Marmont made a second film, The Monk and the Woman (1917)) and then to the U.S.. A chance encounter with a Broadway producer led to him being cast in a leading role in the comedy "The Three Bears", which effectively postponed his intended return to Britain until 1928. During his time in the States, Marmont divided his time between the theatre and films. His first big successes were in Hollywood, where a street was named after him (Marmont Lane), leading to 'Chateau Marmont', a recreated gothic castle in which the rich and famous could rent a room for up to $750 per month. Marmont starred in more than fifty silent films, appearing with some of the top screen actresses of the period, beginning with Corinne Griffith and Alice Joyce at Vitagraph. His perpetually serious, somewhat tortured demeanour may well have been compounded by a hernia he suffered while picking up Clara Bow in Mantrap (1926). Marmont left Hollywood in 1928, to play dapper Lotharios in British films, as well as starring in adaptations of classic American plays ("Witness for the Prosecution", "The Philadelphia Story") on the London stage. He partnered Vivien Leigh in her final British theatrical appearance in "La Contessa" in 1965. Marmont spent the final years of his life, almost completely blind, at his sprawling country estate, an hour's train ride from London.