Robert Donat

Robert Donat embodies, for me, the gold standard of the gracious English screen actor. His sharp charm in Hitchcock's The 39 Steps is delightful, but it's Goodbye, Mr. Chips that defines him, the gentle schoolmaster who won him the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1939, the same year he beat Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind, which says everything about that achievement. Born in Withington near Manchester, he had an extraordinary voice and a natural dignity. That he died at 53, battling chronic asthma, makes his slim filmography all the more precious. He reminds me that quiet, humane performances are the ones that last.

Name (English)

Robert Donat

Name (Japanese)

ロバート・ドーナット

Reading

ろばーと・どーなっと

Born

March 18, 1905 – June 9, 1958

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Pisces / Snake

Origin

Withington, United Kingdom

Occupation

film actor / character actor / stage actor / film director / actor

Awards & achievements

• 1940 Academy Award for Best Actor
• star on Hollywood Walk of Fame

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert%20Donat
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%AD%E3%83%90%E3%83%BC%E3%83%88%E3%83%BB%E3%83%89%E3%83%BC%E3%83%8A%E3%83%83%E3%83%88
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q116983

Tags

• film actor
• character actor
• stage actor

Last updated

2026-06-19

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.