Leopold John Genn ( ; 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.
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."Obituary: Leo Genn" The Daily Telegraph 27 January 1978 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)
Selected filmography
1935: Immortal Gentleman as Merchant / Shylock 1936: The Dream Doctor as Husband 1936: Rhodes of Africa as Narrator (voice, uncredited) 1936: Accused as Man (uncredited) 1937: The Cavalier of the Streets as Attorney General 1937: Jump for Glory as Prosecuting Counsel directed by Raoul Walsh 1937: The Rat as Defending Counsel 1938: Pygmalion as Prince (uncredited) 1938: The Drum as Abdul Fakir (uncredited) 1938: Kate Plus Ten as Dr. Gurdon 1938: Dangerous Medicine as Murdoch 1940: Contraband as First Brother Grimm 1940: Ten Days in Paris as Lanson 1940: The Girl in the News as Prosecuting Counsel (uncredited) directed by Carol Reed 1940: Law and Order as Another Agent 1942: The Young Mr. Pitt as Danton (uncredited) 1943: The Bells Go Down as Off-Screen Narrator (uncredited) 1944: The Way Ahead as Capt. Edwards 1944: Tunisian Victory as Narrator (voice) 1944: The Return of the Vikings as Narrator (voice) 1944: Henry V as The Constable of France 1945: Caesar and Cleopatra as Bel Affris 1946: Green for Danger as Mr. Eden 1947: Mourning Becomes Electra as Adam Brant 1948: The Velvet Touch as Michael Morrell 1948: London Belongs to Me as Narrator, introduction (uncredited) 1948: The Snake Pit as Dr. Mark Kik 1950: No Place for Jennifer as William Bailey 1950: I Went Back documentary with Leo Genn and as narrator 1950: The Wooden Horse as Peter 1950: The Miniver Story as Steve Brunswick 1951: Quo Vadis as Petronius 1951: The Magic Box as Maida Vale Doctor 1952: 24 Hours of a Woman's Life as Robert Stirling 1952: Plymouth Adventure as William Bradford 1953 The Coronation Ceremony, documentary as Narrator 1953 Elizabeth Is Queen, Coronation documentary as Narrator 1953: The Girls of Pleasure Island as Roger Halyard 1953: The Red Beret as Major Snow 1953: Personal Affair as Stephen Barlow 1954: The Green Scarf as Rodelec 1955: The Lowest Crime as Lionel Kendall 1955: Lady Chatterley's Lover as Sir Clifford Chatterley 1956: Moby Dick as Starbuck 1956: Beyond Mombasa as Ralph Hoyt 1957: The Steel Bayonet as Maj. Alan Gerrard 1958: Lambeth 1958 documentary directed by Raymond Kinsey, narrated By Leo Genn 1958: I Accuse! as Maj. Piquart 1958: No Time to Die as Sgt. Kendall 1960: Too Hot to Handle as Johnny Solo 1960: Era Notte a Roma as British Major Michael Pemberton 1962: The Longest Day as Major-General Hollander at SHAEF 1962 Nothing to Eat (But Food) (narrator, documentary) 1963: 55 Days at Peking as Gen. Jung-Lu 1964: The Delhi Way (narrator, documentary) 1964: The Secret of Dr. Mabuse as Adm. Quency 1965: Ten Little Indians as General Mandrake 1966: Circus of Fear as Elliott 1966: Khartoum as Narrator (uncredited) 1970: The Bloody Judge as Lord Wessex 1970: Connecting Rooms as Dr. Norman 1971: National Trust as Narrator 1971: Lizard in a Woman's Skin as Edmond Brighton 1971: Die Screaming, Marianne as The Judge 1972: Endless Night as Psychiatrist (uncredited) 1973: Escape to Nowhere as Chief of M.I.5 1973: The Mackintosh Man as Rollins (uncredited) 1974: Frightmare as Dr. Lytell 1974: as Janusz Korczak (final film role)
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 Saint Helena by R.C. Sherriff Peer Gynt The School for Scandal 1936–37 Old Vic Season Twelfth Night Henry V 1937–69 Later Work 1937 Shakespeare Birthday Festival: excerpts from Shakespeare, 23 April 1937, Old Vic 1937 Hamlet, as Horatio, at Elsinore 1938 Shakespeare Birthday Festival: excerpts from Shakespeare, 25 April 1938, Old Vic 1938 The Flashing Stream, Lyric Theatre & New York 1939 1940 The Jersey Lily by Basil Bartlett, Gate Theatre Studio 1944 To You, America: A Thanksgiving Day Celebration, 23 November 1944, Royal Albert Hall, the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by John Barbirolli, script by Stephen Potter 1946 Another Part of the Forest, New York 1948 Jonathan by Alan Melville, Aldwych 1951 The Seventh Veil, Prince's Theatre 1953 Henry VIII, as Buckingham, with Paul Rogers as Henry VIII, Old Vic. A Coronation Gala performance, held on 6 May 1953, in the presence of the Queen. 1954 The Bombshell, Westminster Theatre 1957 Small War on Murray Hill, New York 1959 The Hidden River, Cambridge Theatre 1961 The Devil's Advocate, New York 1964 Fair Game for Lovers, Cort Theatre, New York 1964 12 Angry Men, Queen's Theatre Jul 9–Aug 15 1964; Lyric Theatre, London Aug 25–Oct 10 1964 1967 The Sacred Flame, Duke of York's Theatre 1968 The Only Game in Town, New York 1968 Caesar and Cleopatra, US 1969 Doctor Faustus, US
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 1971 The Persuaders! "The Long Goodbye"