David Niven
Although he didn’t consider himself a war hero, David Niven certainly fought an interesting and finally, a brave war, he was among the first Commandos. He never ‘bragged’ about the war as others had done. He once said: “I will, however, tell you just one thing about the war, my first story and my last. I was asked by some American friends to search out the grave of their son near Bastogne. I found it where they told me I would, but it was among 27,000 others, and I told myself that here, Niven, were 27,000 reasons why you should keep your mouth shut after the war.”
He served in the Rifle Brigade (Prince Consort’s Own) during World War II, which he left with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He was awarded the Legion of Merit. Before this episode in his career, he was working as an extra in Hollywood. He arrived in the US in the early 1930’s and needed money to live, somehow he ended up in Hollywood and the rest, as they say, is history. He finally landed a good part as a soldier in The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936) at Warners, an Imperial adventure film starring his one-time housemate Errol Flynn.
Niven was fourth billed in Beloved Enemy (1936) for Goldwyn, supporting Merle Oberon, with whom he became romantically involved. Universal used him in We Have Our Moments (1937) then he had another good support part in David O. Selznick's The Prisoner of Zenda (1937). After more acting jobs, Niven joined what became known as the ‘Hollywood Raj’, a group of British actors in Hollywood which included Rex Harrison, Boris Karloff, Stan Laurel, Basil Rathbone, Ronald Colman, Leslie Howard, and C. Aubrey Smith. According to his autobiography, Errol Flynn and he were firm friends and rented Rosalind Russell's house at 601 North Linden Drive as a bachelor pad.
Niven was eventually called up to serve in the war and returned to the U.K. While on leave in 1940, Niven met a beautiful girl, "Primmie" Susan Rollo (18 February 1918, London – 21 May 1946), the daughter of London lawyer William H.C. Rollo. He met her while at a concert on day leave and he fell in love with her. She was the cypher clerk at the R.A.F. reconnaissance Squadron at Heston, just outside London, while staying in Regent’s Park with a family friend.
After a whirlwind romance, they married on 16 September. A son, David, Jr., was born in December 1942 and a second son, James Graham Niven on 6 November 1945. His father-in-law Bill Rollo was a WW1 veteran and in his fifties was working at night in the War Rooms. Niven described him as an angel. “Nobody has ever been able to say a word against him and this despite the fact that he was a famous divorce lawyer.” Rollo had no objections to the marriage and advised Niven that Primmie couldn’t cook.
Niven’s uncle by marriage, Bob Laycock, then a captain in the Royal Horse Guards, was persuaded by Niven to accompany him to the war Office as Niven rightly thought him just the thing that the war effort needed. He was right, and Laycock was invited to form No.8 Commando and went on to a distinguished career of legendary gallantry.
After a brief period of intensive training, Niven himself joined the ‘Phantom’ unit, composed of a number of highly mobile squadrons of ‘officer patrols’. These were deployed among the forward units, equipped with radios, endowed with expert dispatch riders and as a last resort, a basket of carrier pigeons.
Niven recounts this period in his life with great humour and sensitivity. He was obliged to write to the wives and families of men under his command who had unfortunately been killed in battle. He explained: “Writing and re-writing the letters I had to send to the wives and girl- friends of the men lost from ‘A’ Squadron, I kept thinking of a scene from ‘Dawn Patrol’ when the Commanding Officer was going through the same agonising ritual. The adjutant watched him for a while and then said, gently, ‘it doesn’t matter how you word it sir, it’ll break her heart just the same’.
His bawdiness and flair in the second book “Bring on the Empty Horses” reports mostly of his years in Hollywood but describes his war years in some detail where he was given several bouts of special duty to arrange concerts to bolster the morale of the then beleaguered Britain. He also appeared in films designed to do exactly the same and appeared with Leslie Howard in “The First of the Few” and later “The Way Ahead” which was for several years after the war used as a training film at Sandhurst.
In 1942, following the birth of their son David, in the Royal Northern Hospital in Camden Town which was undergoing much bombing, the hospital took a direct hit from a bomb, fortunately just after the couple had left to go home to Dorney with their new baby. Enjoying life as a happily married man, by 1944 Niven was sent to Normandy for the landings there and he says in his biography: “There is no place in these pages for harrowing blood-soaked descriptions of man’s inhumanity to man”. Niven resumed his acting career in Hollywood after his demobilisation, and was voted the second-most popular British actor in the 1945 Popularity Poll of British film stars.
Sadly, Primmie died aged 28, only six weeks after the family moved to the US. She fractured her skull after an accidental fall in the Beverly Hills, California home of Tyrone Power, while playing a game of hide-and-seek during a party. She had walked through a door believing it to be a closet, but instead, it led to a stone staircase to the basement.
Niven was devastated and never moved into the home that Primmie had been preparing for them, called “The Pink House”, found for them by the Douglas Fairbank’s and right next door to their own home. He had been proud of it as it was the first home he had ever owned. Fate wasn’t going to allow him to enjoy it. And in his misery at his loss, was comforted by friends, all of them well-known actors and, including the Humphrey Bogert’s, who were kind to him and enabled him to survive as he had children to care for.
He later appeared in the memorable classic, A Matter of Life and Death (1946), The Bishop's Wife (1947), and Enchantment (1948), all of which received critical acclaim. Niven later appeared in The Elusive Pimpernel (1950), The Toast of New Orleans (1950), Happy Go Lovely (1951), Happy Ever After (1954) and Carrington V.C. (1955) scoring a big success as Phileas Fogg, in Michael Todd's production of Around the World in 80 Days (1956).
Niven appeared in nearly a hundred films, and many shows for television. He also began writing his books, with considerable commercial success. In 1982 he appeared in Blake Edwards' final "Pink Panther" films Trail of the Pink Panther and Curse of the Pink Panther, reprising his role as Sir Charles Lytton.
In 1948, Niven met Hjördis Paulina Tersmeden (née Genberg, 1919–1997), a divorced Swedish fashion model. They had two daughters. They lived in Switzerland and spent time in the USA and Europe. In 1980, Niven began experiencing fatigue, muscle weakness, and a warble in his voice.
His 1981 interviews on the talk shows of Michael Parkinson and Merv Griffin alarmed family and friends; viewers wondered if Niven had either been drinking or suffered a stroke. He blamed his slightly slurred voice on the shooting schedule on the film he had been making, ‘Better Late Than Never’. He was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or "Lou Gehrig's disease" in the US, or "motor neurone disease" (MND) in the UK), later that year. He died in 1983.
David Niven will be remembered as the urbane and adaptable actor who in turn delighted with his comedy and thrilled with his dramatic performances for several decades. His lasting legacy is there to see in all the movies he made and in the fond memories the public still have of this interesting and memorable actor. I urge you to read both his books as they will entertain you and educate you at the same time.
“The Moon’s a Balloon”, and “Bring on the Empty Horses”, published in dual edition 1984.