Robert Donat

Friedrich Robert Donath (18 March 1905 – 9 June 1958) was an English film and stage actor. He is best remembered for his roles in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps (1935) and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), winning for the latter the Academy Award for Best Actor. Donat was also a successful stage actor, despite the challenge of chronic asthma from which he suffered. 2Early life and career Donat was born in Withington, Manchester, the fourth and youngest son of Ernst Emil Donath, a civil engineer of German origin from Prussian Poland, and his wife Rose Alice Green. He was of English, Polish, German and French descent and was educated at Manchester's Central High School for Boys. He took elocution lessons with James Bernard. Donat made his first stage appearance in 1921, at the age of 16, with Henry Baynton's company at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Birmingham, playing Lucius in Julius Caesar. His real break came in 1924 when he joined the company of Shakespearean actor Sir Frank Benson, where he stayed for four years. Donat married Ella Annesley Voysey (1903–1994) in 1929; the couple had three children together but divorced in 194