Brian Aherne(1902-1986)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Brian Aherne was an Oscar-nominated Anglo-American stage and screen
actor who was one of the top cinema character actors in the 1930s,
1940s and 1950s. Born on May 2, 1902, in Kings Norton, Worcestershire,
England, Aherne performed as an actor as a child. At age 18, he made his
debut as an adult with the company that would evolve into the
world-famous Birmingham Repertory Theatre. Three years later, he made
his debut in London's West End, the English equivalent of Broadway.
After his experience in Birmingham, Aherne studied architecture, but a
life as an actor was too strong to resist, so he returned to the
theater in 1923. For the next eight years, he toured the provinces and
appeared in the West End in various productions. In 1931, he made his
Broadway debut playing Robert Browning in "The Barretts of Wimpole
Street." He alternated between the New York and London stage in the
early 1930s. Aherne made his movie debut in 1924, and in the mid-1930s,
he moved to Hollywood. In 1940, he was nominated for an Academy Award
as Best Supporting Actor for Juarez (1939)
for playing the Emperor Maximilian. Brian Aherne published his
autobiography in 1969, and 10 years later, he published a biography of
his friend George Sanders,
entitled "A Dreadful Man." He died at age 83 of heart failure on
February 10, 1986, in Venice, Florida.
