Dignified, balding British character actor, the son of a glass manufacturer. Educated at the City of London School, he acted on stage from as early as 1892. On screen, he typically played refined gentlemen, be they nobility or well-to-do professional men. He also acted on Broadway from 1922. In films, he was particularly effective in miserly or austere roles in period drama. He was noteworthy in several of
Alexander Korda's films in the 1930's, seen to best effect as Archbishop Cranmer in
The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933).