Roddy McDowall was thought to be one of the nicest people in show biz ever, & an especially good friend who was known to be able to keep a confidence.
After winning an acting prize in a school play, he was able to secure film work in Britain, beginning at age 10 with 1938's Scruffy. He appeared in 16 roles before his family were evacuated to the U.S. during the 1940 Battle of Britain. McDowall’s arrival in Hollywood coincided with the desire of 20th Century-Fox’s Darryl F. Zanuck to create a "new Freddie Bartholomew." He tested for the juvenile lead in Fox's How Green Was My Valley (1941), winning both the role, great reviews & a long contract. Roddy McDowall was cast with the then unknown Elizabeth Taylor, in her screen debut, in 1943's Lassie Come Home. Elizabeth & Roddy became life long close friends. Elizabeth's selection for this movie was an absolute fluke. The director wanted a young girl with an English accent.
McDowall's 1st adult role was as Malcolm in Orson Welles' 1948 film version of Macbeth. Basically, McDowall left films in the 1950s, preferring TV & stage work; among his Broadway credits were No Time for Sergeants, Compulsion, (working with fellow former child star Dean Stockwell) & Lerner & Loewe's Camelot (as Mordred, a role I played in summer stock a decade later). McDowall won a 1960 Tony Award for his work in the short run of the play- The Fighting Cock (by coincidence a chapter title in my memoir- Jockstraps & Vicodin: The Early Years). he spent the early 1960s playing Octavius in the mammoth production Cleopatra, with longtime friend Elizabeth Taylor.
An accomplished & original photographer, McDowall’s photos of Taylor & other celebrities were frequently published in the leading magazines of the era. He was briefly an advising photographic editor of Harper's Bazaar, & in 1966 published the first of several collections of his camerawork- Double Exposure.
McDowall went ape shit for his acting gigs between 1968 & 1975, in elaborate simian makeup as Cornelius in the Planet of the Apes films & TV series. He did an occasional film role & play into the 1990s. McDowall served on the executive boards of the Screen Actors Guild & the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
A lifelong movie collector, in 1974 (around the time I met him briefly) the FBI raided the home of McDowall & seized his collection of films & television series during an investigation of movie piracy & copyright infringement. His collection consisted of 160 16 mm prints & more than 1,000 video cassettes. McDowall had purchased Errol Flynn's home movies & the prints of his own directorial debut Tam-Lin (1970) starring Ava Gardner, and transferred them all to tape for archival storage. McDowall was forthcoming about those who dealt with him: Rock Hudson, Dick Martin & Mel Tormé were just a few of the celebrities interested in his film reproductions. No charges were brought against McDowall. McDowall has also worked diligently with the National Film Preservation Board. In August, 1998, he was elected president of the Academy Foundation.
McDowall was one of the Hollywood golden age’s much loved stars, famed for his kindness, generosity & loyalty. McDowall's announcement that he was suffering from terminal cancer a few weeks before he died rocked the film community, & many of his friends visited the ailing actor in his Studio City home. Shortly before he was diagnosed with cancer, McDowall had provided the voiceover for Disney/Pixar's animated feature- A Bug's Life. A few days prior to McDowall's passing, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences named its photo archive after him.
Roddy McDowall graduated from University High School in Santa Monica. Christopher Isherwood wrote in a volume of his memoir that Tom Maddox told him, that he was having an affair with the Roddy, then 17 years old.
Tab Hunter mentions Roddy in his autobiography Tab Hunter Confidential : The Making of a Movie Star : "While making shakes at the Rexall drugstore at Hollywood & Highland, I met my first bona fide movie star. It was the night of the big 1948 Christmas parade...Dick Clayton brought along Roddy McDowall. Roddy was only 20, but he'd been in pictures his whole life.... We hit it off, gabbing and laughing....". Several years later, Tab & Roddy posed shirtless for a fan magazine spread entitled "Calling All Girls".
Farley Granger talks of Roddy in his autobiography Include Me Out: My Life from Goldwyn to Broadway. He knew Roddy prior to Farley's enlistment in the Navy at age 18. Granger: "It was 1953. I found an apartment on the Upper East Side in Manhattan... My old pal Roddy McDowall & Monty Clift lived on the same block" Roddy & Montgomery were very close. During this period he also had an affair with Marlon Brando.
Eddie Fisher, in his autobiography Been There, Done That mentions Roddy McDowall & the years of hatred he had for Roddy. Eddie had first met Elizabeth at a party that Merv Griffin & Roddy threw in an apartment they were then sharing in one of my favorite NY structures- The Dakota. Fisher: "She spent most of the evening in a corner with her close friend Montgomery Clift... She was recently divorced from her first husband Nicky Hilton...."
Lauren Bacall in her memoir By Myself & Then Some: "He was someone I looked forward to being with, loved seeing, loved hearing from."
Roddy was with Bette Davis during the last part of her life. When Julie Andrews asked Roddy why he didn't write a book about his life, he said, "I have too many friends, I know too much, I couldn't."
Roddy McDowall has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6632 Hollywood Blvd, & there is an honorary rose garden at the Woodland Hills grounds of the Motion Picture & Television Fund with a statue of him in costume from the Planet of the Apes. I think that I would have really liked to have been friends with him. Really good friends are to be treasured.
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