Mason, James

ACTOR (ENGLAND)
BORN 15 May 1909, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire - DIED 27 Jul 1984, Lausanne, Vaud
BIRTH NAME Mason, James Neville
CAUSE OF DEATH heart attack
GRAVE LOCATION Corsier-sur-Vevey, Vaud: Cimetière, Sur le Crêt (ashes)

Son of a walthy merchant. He studied architecture but started acting without a formal education. He joined the Old Vic theatre in London and from 1935 played in movies. He objected to England joining in the Second World War and this caused his family to break with him for a long time. His popularity as an actor grew in the 1940s and in 1949 he made his first Hollywood movie, "Caught".

He played in many more movies and received his third Oscar nomination for his part in "The Verdict". He never won an Oscar. From 1941 until 1965 he was married to the actress Pamela Ostrer. Their son Morgan was assistent to Ronald Reagan and married Belinda Carlisle in 1986. In 1971 Mason married his second wife, the Australian actress Clarissa Kaye. He survived a heart attack in 1959 but died from another in 1984.

Clarissa kept his ashes in an urn. After she died in 1994 they were tracked down by his children from his first marriage and in 2000 they were finally interred at Corsier-sur-Vevey where had lived for the last 22 years of his life.

Related persons
• was a friend of Chaplin, Charly

Images

The grave of James Mason at the cemetery of Corsier-sur-Vevey, Vaud.
Picture by Androom (05 Dec 2007)

 

Sources
BBC Ceefax
Winkler Prins Encyclopedie (Editie 1992)
James Mason - Wikipedia


Massart, Lambert

Published: 07 Jun 2008
Last update: 21 Jul 2024