Eric Portman: British Actor of Distinctive Voice
Eric Harrison Portman (13 July 1901 – 7 December 1969) was an English stage and screen actor. He is probably best remembered for his roles in three films for Powell and Pressburger during the 1940s and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance in Separate Tables.
Early Life and Education
Portman was born in Halifax, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the second son of Matthew Portman, a wool merchant, and Alice Harrison. He was educated at Rishworth School in Yorkshire. In 1922, he began work as a salesman in the menswear department at Marshall & Snelgrove department store in Leeds while acting in the amateur Halifax Light Opera Society.
Career and Achievements
Portman made his professional stage debut in 1924 with Henry Baynton’s company. That same year, he joined Robert Courtneidge’s Shakespearian company as a ‘passenger’ and appeared in Richard II at the Victoria Hall, Sunderland, which led to Courtneidge offering him a contract. His West End debut followed in September 1924 at the Savoy Theatre in London, playing Antipholous of Syracuse in The Comedy of Errors. Lilian Baylis engaged him for the Old Vic Company, where he played Romeo in 1928 at the rebuilt theatre. He became a successful theatre actor, appearing in productions including Diplomacy in 1933 with Gerald du Maurier and Basil Rathbone.
Portman began his film career in the 1930s with an uncredited role in The Girl from Maxim’s (1933). He appeared in four films in 1935, including Maria Marten, or The Murder in the Red Barn with Tod Slaughter, Hyde Park Corner, Old Roses, and Abdul the Damned. In 1936, he had a stage hit playing Lord Byron in Bitter Harvest and appeared in several films including The Cardinal and The Crimes of Stephen Hawke. He travelled to the United States to perform in Madame Bovary on Broadway for the Theatre Guild of America and had a small role in The Prince and the Pauper (1937), though he disliked Hollywood and returned to theatre.
His breakthrough came in 1941 when he played Lieutenant Hirth, a Nazi on the run, in Powell and Pressburger’s 49th Parallel, a major success in both the US and Britain. This established him as a star and led to a long-term contract with Gainsborough Pictures. He appeared in Powell and Pressburger’s One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942) and later A Canterbury Tale (1944). Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Portman appeared in numerous films including Uncensored (1942), Squadron Leader X (1943), We Dive at Dawn (1943), Millions Like Us (1943), Great Day (1945), Men of Two Worlds (1946), Wanted for Murder (1947), Dear Murderer (1947), The Mark of Cain (1947), Daybreak (1948), Corridor of Mirrors (1948), The Blind Goddess (1948), The Spider and the Fly (1949), Cairo Road (1950), His Excellency (1952), South of Algiers (1953), The Colditz Story (1955), The Deep Blue Sea (1955), Child in the House (1956), and The Good Companions (1957).
On stage, Portman had a major success in Terence Rattigan’s Separate Tables, playing the bogus Major in a 1956–57 Broadway production. He also appeared in Jane Eyre as Rochester in 1958 and A Touch of the Poet by Eugene O’Neill in 1959, which had a long run. Later film roles included The Naked Edge (1961), Freud: The Secret Passion (1962), West 11 (1963), The Man Who Finally Died (1963), The Bedford Incident (1965), and The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966).
Notable Events and Milestones
In 1945, exhibitors voted Portman the 10th most popular star at the British box office, a ranking he maintained the following year. His performance in Separate Tables on Broadway in 1956–57 earned him critical recognition. BFI Screenonline described him as “an unlikely box-office attraction in the 1940s, when audiences admired his polished, distinctive voice and portrayals of disturbed, complex characters.”
Awards and Honors
Portman was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his performance in Separate Tables.
Additional Resources
For more detailed information about Eric Portman’s life and career, readers can consult Wikipedia and other biographical archives that document his extensive work in British theatre and cinema across five decades.
Observer Voice is the one stop site for National, International news, Sports, Editor’s Choice, Art/culture contents, Quotes and much more. We also cover historical contents. Historical contents includes World History, Indian History, and what happened today. The website also covers Entertainment across the India and World.
Follow Us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, & LinkedIn
