Leopold John Genn ( GHEN; 9 August 1905 – 26 January 1978) was an English actor and barrister. Distinguished by his relaxed charm and smooth, "black velvet" voice, he had a lengthy career in theatre, film, television and radio, often playing aristocratic or gentlemanly, sophisticated roles.
Born to a Jewish family in London, Genn was educated as a lawyer and was a practising barrister until after World War II, in which he had served in the Royal Artillery as a lieutenant-colonel. He began his acting career at The Old Vic and made his film debut in 1935, starring in a total of 85 screen roles until his death in 1978. For his portrayal of Petronius in the 1951 Hollywood epic Quo Vadis, he received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
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Early life and family
Genn was born at 144 Kyverdale Road, Stamford Hill, Hackney, London, the son of Jewish parents Woolfe (William) Genn and Rachel Genn (née Asserson).
Genn attended the City of London School, having gained scholarships in both classics and mathematics, and studied law at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he became captain of both the football and tennis teams. He went on to study at the Middle Temple, qualifying as a barrister in 1928. He ceased practising as a lawyer after serving as an assistant prosecutor at the Belsen War Trials.
Career
Theatre career
Genn entered acting with the Berkley Players (attached to the West London Synagogue) in order to increase his chances of finding prospective clients for his legal work. Actor/manager Leon Lion saw Genn act and offered him a contract. Genn's theatrical debut was in 1930 in A Marriage has been Disarranged at the Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne and then at the Royalty Theatre in Dean Street, London. Lion had engaged him simultaneously as an actor and attorney. In 1933, he appeared in Ballerina by Rodney Ackland. Between September 1934 and March 1936, Leo Genn was a member of the Old Vic Company, where he appeared in many productions of Shakespeare. In 1934 he featured in R. J. Minney's Clive of India.
In 1937, he played Horatio in Tyrone Guthrie's production of Hamlet, with Laurence Olivier as Hamlet, in Elsinore, Denmark. In 1938, Genn appeared in the theatrical hit The Flashing Stream by Charles Langbridge Morgan and went with the show to Broadway in New York City. His many other stage performances included Lillian Hellman's Another Part of the Forest, Twelve Angry Men, The Devil's Advocate, and Somerset Maugham's The Sacred Flame.
In 1959, Genn gave a reading in Chichester Cathedral. In 1974, a recording of The Jungle Book was released with Genn as narrator and Miklós Rózsa conducting the Frankenland Symphony Orchestra with the music from the film.
Film career
Genn's first film role was as Shylock in Immortal Gentleman (1935), a biography of Shakespeare. Douglas Fairbanks Jr hired Genn as a technical adviser on the film Accused (1936). He was subsequently given a small part in the film on the strength of a "splendid voice and presence". Genn received another small role in Alexander Korda's The Drum (1938) and was the young man who danced with Eliza Doolittle at the duchess's ball in Pygmalion, a film made in the same year, although he was uncredited.
War service
With war approaching, Genn joined the Officers' Emergency Reserve in 1938. He was commissioned in the Royal Artillery on 6 July 1940 and was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1943. In 1944 the actor was given official leave to appear as Charles I d'Albret, the Constable of France, in Laurence Olivier's Henry V.
Genn was awarded the Croix de Guerre in 1945. He was part of the British unit that investigated war crimes at Belsen concentration camp and later was an assistant prosecutor at the Belsen war crimes trials in Lüneburg, Germany.
Post-war
He was in Green for Danger (1946) and The Snake Pit (1948). He was one of the two leading actors in The Wooden Horse in 1950. After his Oscar-nominated success as Petronius in Quo Vadis (1951), he appeared in John Huston's Moby Dick (1956). Genn also appeared in some American films, such as The Girls of Pleasure Island, and Plymouth Adventure (1952), a fictionalised treatment of the Pilgrims' landing at Plymouth Rock. He later starred opposite Gene Tierney in the British film Personal Affair (1953).
He played Major Michael Pemberton in Roberto Rossellini's Era Notte a Roma (Escape by Night, 1960). Leo Genn narrated the coronation programmes of both 1937 and 1953, the King George VI Memorial Programme in 1952, and the United Nations ceremonial opening (in the USA) in 1947.
Genn was a governor of the Mermaid Theatre and trustee of the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. He was also council member of the Arts Educational Trust. He was appointed distinguished visiting professor of theatre arts, Pennsylvania State University, 1968 and visiting professor of drama, University of Utah, 1969.
Personal life and death
On 14 May 1933, Genn married Marguerite van Praag (1908–1978), a casting director at Ealing Studios. They had no children.
Genn died in London on 26 January 1978. The immediate cause of death was a heart attack, brought on by complications of pneumonia. He is buried in Etretat Churchyard, Seine-Maritime, France.
In 2023, a historical marker was placed on the building where he was born by the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, U.K. Branch and AJEX.
The text reads:
(Lt Col.) Leo Genn, RA, Croix de Guerre
Jewish Prosecutor - Bergen Belsen War Crimes Trials
Famous actor and soldier (1905–78) was born in this house
"When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous..." Proverbs 21:15
(Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, U.K. Branch and AJEX)
Theatre
1930 A Marriage Has Been Disarranged, Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne, Royalty Theatre
appearances in: No 17; Tiger Cats; Champion North; While Parents Sleep; Clive of India
1931 O.H.M.S.
1934–36 Old Vic Company:
1934–35 Old Vic Season
Much Ado About Nothing
Henry IV Part 2
Major Barbara
Hippolytus by Euripides
The Two Shepherds by Sierra
Othello
The Taming of the Shrew, Sadler's Wells
Saint Joan, Old Vic/Sadler's Wells
Richard II
Antony and Cleopatra
Hamlet
Shakespeare Birthday Festival- 23 April 1935
Last Night of Shakespeare Season: scenes from Hamlet, Richard II, Taming of The Shrew, 20 May 1935
1935–36 Old Vic Season
Julius Caesar
Macbeth
Richard III
King Lear
Television
1955 Omnibus: "Herod"
1955 Screen Director's Playhouse: "Titanic Incident"
1960 Mrs. Miniver with Maureen O'Hara as Mrs Miniver and Leo Genn as Clem Miniver, CBS
1961 The Defenders
1961 The Jack Paar Show, (himself)
1961 The Life of Adolf Hitler written & directed by Paul Rotha, commentary by Leo Genn & Marius Goring
1962 The Unseen Valley directed by Stephen Peet, Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind, BBC
1962 An Act of Faith, a BBC documentary on Coventry Cathedral, narrated by Leo Genn
1963 Bob Hope Presents The Chrysler Theatre: "Commander Tony Gardiner"
1963 The Merv Griffin Show, (himself)
1964 "The Thirty Days of Gavin Heath", an episode of The Virginian, Leo Genn as Gavin Heath
1965 The Cat's Cradle by Hugo Charteris, an instalment of The Wednesday Play, BBC Television
1967 Saint Joan
1968 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (film)
1969 Strange Report
1969 The Expert
1970 Howards End (with Glenda Jackson), an instalment of Play of the Month BBC Television
Radio
1935 Penarth's Cave, a play and competition by J. Harold Carpenter, The Children's Hour BBC
1936 Kitchener, BBC radio
1937 The Company of Heaven, devised for Michaelmas by R. Ellis Roberts with music by Benjamin Britten
1939 Morte d'Arthur by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
1945 The Man of Property, Young Jolyon in Muriel Levy's adaptation of the first novel in John Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga sequence, broadcast by BBC radio in half-hourly episodes
1946 The Voyage of Magellan OF MAGELLAN', a dramatic chronicle in verse by Laurie Lee
1952 Deburau by Sacha Guitry, adapted by Dennis Arundell from the English version by Harley Granville-Barker
1953 Desert Island Discs, BBC, guest, (broadcast 26 June 1953).
1954 Dear Brutus by J. M. Barrie, BBC
1954 Jungle Green dramatised & produced by Alan Burgess from the book by Arthur Campbell, BBC
1961 No Summer at Sea by Philip Holland BBC
1962 The Lark by Jean Anouilh, translated by Christopher Fry, BBC
1963 The Enemy Below by Denys Rayner, BBC radio
1965 The Skin Game, by John Galsworthy, BBC radio
1966 Ashenden – Secret Agent 1914-1918: The Hairless Mexican, by W. Somerset Maugham, in five episodes, adapted by Howard Agg, produced by George Angell and read by Leo Genn.