Leon M. Lion

Biography

Leon Marks Lion was an English actor, primarily of stage but also of screen; playwright, theatrical manager and producer. His first professional performance was in 1897, and he went on to enjoy a successful and varied career on the stage (including touring with light opera and Shakespeare companies), regularly performing in London's West End; as well as writing and producing for the theatre. He played in and produced a number of plays by Nobel laureate John Galsworthy, whose letters to Lion were published in book-form in 1969 (and whose play "The Skin Game" was adapted to film by Alfred Hitchcock). Lion appeared in a total of thirteen films between 1915 and 1939, most notably receiving top billing as bumbling, comic tramp "Ben" in Hitchcock's Number 17 (1932). He also appeared in some of England's earliest television broadcasts in 1938/9.