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Jack Hawkins
Life Time
14 September 1910 - 18 July 1973
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Jack Hawkins (real name - John Edward Hawkins) was born on September 14, 1910 in London, in the Wood Green area. Having started performing as a teenager in children’s Christmas performances, at the age of 18 he already made his Broadway debut. Returning a few years later to the UK, he continued to play in the theater, at the same time he began to act in films - his first films were Birds of Prey (1930) directed by Basil Dean and a sound version of Hitchcock's Resident (1932), directed by Maurice
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Jack Hawkins (real name - John Edward Hawkins) was born on September 14, 1910 in London, in the Wood Green area. Having started performing as a teenager in children’s Christmas performances, at the age of 18 he already made his Broadway debut. Returning a few years later to the UK, he continued to play in the theater, at the same time he began to act in films - his first films were Birds of Prey (1930) directed by Basil Dean and a sound version of Hitchcock's Resident (1932), directed by Maurice Elway. Throughout the 30s and early years of World War II, he was mostly known as a supporting actor, as he paid little attention to his cinematic career, preferring work in the theater. During the war, Hawkins served with the National Entertainment Association (ENSA), organizing performances for British troops in India. As a film actor, Hawkins was more in demand in the postwar years - it was then that he signed a contract with the famous film producer and director Alexander Corda and starred in several films, of which the most successful were Carol Reed's "Defeated Idol" (1948), "The Little Back Room" (1949) by Michael Powell and Emerick Pressburger and "Black Rose" (1950) by American Henry Hathaway. Hawkins' popularity peaked in the fifties and sixties, when he became famous as a performer of the roles of brave and unflappable British officers, as he appeared in The Cruel Sea (1953, dir. Charles Friend), the crime comedy League of Gentlemen (1959, dir. Basil Dearden) or David Lean's classic paintings Bridge over the River Kwai (1957) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Among the undoubted acting successes of Hawkins of that time include the role of a teacher at a school for deaf children in Mandy (1952, dir. Alexander McKendrick), Quint Aria in the landmark Hollywood canvas Ben-Hur (1959, dir. William Wyler), the Rev. Otto Witt in the battle-historical film Zulus (1964, dir. Cy Endfield) and Inspector Gideon in Gideon from Scotland Yard (1958, John Ford). In 1966, the actor underwent a severe operation caused by laryngeal cancer and completely lost his voice. With the help of an artificial device, he regained the ability to speak, but in all subsequent films his voice was duplicated. Having bravely endured misfortune, Hawkins continued to act in films - "Shalako" (1968, dir. Edward Dmitrick), "Oh, what a beautiful war!" (1969, dir. Richard Attenborough), "Waterloo" (1970, dir. Sergey Bondarchuk), "Bloody theater" (1973, dir. Douglas Hickox) - until a long-standing illness ended his life in July 1973.