David Manners

Biography

A dapper, debonair, darkly attractive leading man of 1920s stage and '30s screen, actor David Manners was born Rauff de Ryther Duan Acklom on April 30, 1900, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. A highly serviceable, if sometimes overshadowed, co-star opposite Hollywood's top 1930s female superstars, It seems ironic that, out of all these beautiful leading lady co-stars, his best-remembered pairings were opposite Dracula and the Mummy! Of well-to-do stock, David was the son of British parents Lilian Manners Acklom and writer George Moreby Acklom, who was, at the time, the headmaster of Harrow House School, a renowned private boarding school in Halifax. His mother's lineage alleges Lady Diana Cooper and the Duke of Rutland as descendants, while his father's family tree includes Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Moving to New York City in 1907, his father found work as a major editor and literary advisor for the publishing firm E.P. Dutton. Employed while young as an assistant publisher, it seemed David might follow into his father's career footsteps. Instead he returned to Canada to study forestry at the University of Toronto. While there he joined the university's theatre group and, through them, made his debut at the city's Hart House Theatre in the Euripides' play "Hippolytus". Against his father's steadfast objections, Manners left college in early 1923, with only months away from graduation, when he was invited to join Basil Sydney's Touring Co. Firmly dedicated now to performing, he settled in New York City after the tour and enrolled at the Trinity School of drama where he first performed as Fernando in "The Tempest". He subsequently became a member of Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Co. in New York. One theatre highlight was appearing in the 1924 Broadway play "Dancing Mothers" with legendary Helen Hayes at the Booth Theatre. In Los Angeles from 1927, David made an uncredited film debut in the action adventure The Sky Hawk (1929) headlining lovely Helen Chandler. It was famed director James Whale who opened the doors wide open while searching out a film cast for Journey's End (1930) after its highly successful Broadway run. Witnessing David's work in a New York play, Whale hired him to portray idealistic, innocent-eyed 2nd Lt. Raleigh opposite star Colin Clive's Capt. Stanhope. The film was critically acclaimed and it paved the way for David to play glossy romantic co-stars. Following David and lovely Frances Dade played the third and fourth-billed love interest behind stars Lowell Sherman and Alice Joyce in the romantic comedy He Knew Women (1930), the nascent film actor moved right to the head of the class with the crime drama Sweet Mama (1930) opposite Tessa Wells, who tries to save him from a gangster's life. He next played Caliph Abdallah opposite Loretta Young's Marsinsah in the musical fantasy Kismet (1930) and then found himself entangled in a romantic quartet with Young, Conway Tearle and Myrna Loy in the romancer The Truth About Youth (1930). By this time David had reached heartthrob status playing these well-bred gents, finding himself occasionally on the "top 10" list of popular film actors. Reunited with Helen Chandler in the family drama Mother's Cry (1930), David's next role as John Harker (opposite Chandler playing the ill-fated Mina) would become his most famous. As the nagging nemesis to Bela Lugosi's lethal Count in Universal's granddaddy of horror classics, Dracula (1931), the Harker role would follow him the rest of his life. This visibility allowed a permanent "in" as a glitzy movie charmer opposite Hollywood's finest lady divas. His bevy of beautiful stars included Barbara Stanwyck in the Frank Capra drama The Miracle Woman (1931); Constance Bennett in Lady with a Past (1932); Kay Francis in Man Wanted (1932); Katharine Hepburn in A Bill of Divorcement (1932); and Loretta Young once again in They Call It Sin (1932). David reunited with his "Dracula" stars Lugosi and Edward Van Sloan (who played Van Helsing) with the murder mystery The Death Kiss (1932), then hopped aboard the "horror express" once again in his second classic, The Mummy (1932), wherein he plays a similar damsel-saving Harker role (Frank Whemple) out to outdo Boris Karloff's nefarious creature. As usual, David continued with ritzy co-leads and second leads in such films as From Hell to Heaven (1933) starring Carole Lombard; The Devil's in Love (1933) with Loretta Young once again; and Torch Singer (1933) starring Claudette Colbert. A third terror opus had Dave joining both Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi in the horror stars' first pairing). In The Black Cat (1934), David and his newlywed wife are menaced by Karloff's Satanic architect. After playing the title role in the mystery horror Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935), a starring role as an ex-con arrested for a syndicate murder in the crime mystery The Perfect Clue (1935), a featured role in a lesser Katharine Hepburn feminist film A Woman Rebels (1936), and a lead role in the "B" level Canadian crime drama Lucky Fugitives (1936), David, tired of the Hollywood grind and pretentiousness, called it quits in films. Returning to stage tours and summer stock, he showed up on Broadway in the short-lived plays "Truckline Café" (with a cast including a young Marlon Brando) and "Hidden Horizon", both in early 1946. At the end of the year he served as a Broadway replacement in a revival of "Lady Windemere's Fan". In 1953, Manners retired from acting entirely. Early back in 1933, Manners had bought and designed a ranch in the Mojave desert, which he called Rancho Yucca Loma. After Hollywood, he spent much time there making home movies, writing and painting. In 1941 he published his first novel Convenient Season, which was followed by a second, Under Running Laughter, in 1943. Both were published by E.P. Dutton. David was once married briefly (1929-1932) to Suzanne Bushnell. In 1948, he established a long-term personal relationship with playwright Frederic William ("Bill") Mercer (1918-1978). The couple remained together in California until Bill's death. After his Hollywood years, David re-intensified his strong spiritual interest and took a path that resulted in a number of philosophical writings. Look Through: An Evidence of Self Discovery was published in 1971 and his esoteric book Awakening from the Dream of Me came out in 1987. His journal writings, from 1973 on, were published posthumously as The Wonder Within You in 2006. The nonagenarian's health began to decline in 1993 and on December 23, 1998, he died at a Santa Barbara facility at the age of 97.