Local Heroes: Robert Donat

Born in Withington, Manchester, on March 18, 1905, Robert Donat made it to the very top of his profession as both an acclaimed stage actor and as an Oscar-winning Hollywood star. 

Unlike most British actors of the period, he avoided falling into class stereotypes, and on screen his role models were more American. He was likened at the time to Gary Cooper and Clark Gable, rather than Leslie Howard or David Niven. His most successful films included The Ghost Goes West (1935), Hitchcock's The 39 Steps (1935), The Citadel (1938), for which he received his first Best Actor Oscar nomination - and Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, over Clark Gable for Gone with the Wind, Laurence Olivier for Wuthering Heights, James Stewart for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Mickey Rooney for Babes in Arms. 

Sadly, Donat suffered from chronic asthma which affected his stage and screen career and limited him to appearing in only twenty films. But almost all of them are classics, and his performances are always memorable. He died on 9 June 1958 of a brain tumour. He was only 53.

 Salford Film Festival pays tributes to one of the greats, with matinee screenings of his two most famous films, THE 39 STEPS and GOODBYE MR CHIPS.