Eric Portman
Eric Portman (born
Halifax, West Yorkshire on
13 July,
1903 and died St. Veep,
Cornwall on
7 December,
1969) was a distinguished
British stage and film actor.
He is probably best remembered for his roles in several films for
Michael Powell and
Emeric Pressburger during the
1940s. He was in the top ten of Britain's biggest box office draws in 1942.
He started work in 1922 as a salesman in the menswear department at Marshall and Snedgrove's in
Leeds and acted in the amateur Halifax Light Opera Society . He made his professional stage debut in
1924, before he was engaged by
Lilian Baylis for the
Old Vic Company. In 1928 he starred as
Romeo in the rebuilt
Old Vic and he forged a reputation as a noted
Shakespearian actor.
He was a lifelong
bachelor, who died at the age of 66 at his home in rural
Cornwall.
A Public House, Portman & Pickles, in Market Street
Halifax is named after him and
Wilfred Pickles.
He was a familiar British actor in many films of the
Second World War period:
* A Nazi U-Boat commander in
Forty-Ninth Parallel (1941)
* A heroic
RAF officer stranded in the
Netherlands in
One of Our Aircraft is Missing (1942)
* The Magistrate in
A Canterbury Tale (1944).
* He also starred in
Squadron Leader X (1941),
*
Anthony Asquith's
We Dive at Dawn (1943),
*
Sidney Gilliat and
Frank Launder's
Millions Like Us (1943),
*
The Colditz Story (1955)
*
The Whisperers (1967)
* Portman's final film was
Deadfall (1967), directed by
Bryan Forbes.
He also played
Number Two in
The Prisoner, episode;
Free for All, screened on
22 October,
1967.
He was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor (Dramatic) for his Broadway performance as the bogus Major, in
Terence Rattigan's play
Separate Tables in 1957.
