Benita Hume
British postcard by Film Weekly, London, Series 112.
Benita Hume (1907-1967) was an English theatre and film actress. She appeared in 44 films between 1925 and 1955, from the silent film era to sound film. She had a prolific even if a short-lived career as the leading lady in Hollywood cinema.
Brunette Benita Hume was born in London in 1907. She did the RADA theatre academy and started to act on stage in 1924. From 1925 she played small parts in British cinema e.g. in Alfred Hitchcock's Easy Virtue (1927), and she had her first major part in the spy drama Second to None (Jack Raymond, 1927). She was one of the Sanger sisters in The Constant Nymph (Adrian Brunel, 1928), starring Ivor Novello and Mabel Poulton, and had the female lead in the period piece Balaclava (Maurice Elvey, Milton Rosmer, 1928), set during the Crimean War. Elvey shot the silent version, but Rosmer reshot much to turn it into a talkie. In A South Sea Bubble (T. Hayes Hunter, 1928) Hume was paired again with Novello, but now as the leading lady. Again Brunel directed her in A Light Woman (1928), in which she was the star, while she was the title character in The Lady of the Lake (James A. FitzPatrick, 1928). In the science fiction High Treason (Maurice Elvey, 1929), shot both as silent and sound version, pacifist women led by Hume's character and her father unite to prevent overheated leaders of the US and United Europe (it is SF!) and war-mongering financiers and agitators from engineering a second world war. Hume next played in two more crime films: The Clue of the New Pin (Athur Maude, 1929) and the German-British co-production The Wrecker (Géza von Bolváry, 1929).
In 1930 Benita Hume went to the US to act in her first Broadway play: Ivor Novello's 'Symphony in Two Flats' (1930). In the same year, she acted in the UK film version of the play. She continued to act in various British crime films and dramas by Maurice Elvey and others. In 1931 she would divorce her first husband, Eric Otto Siepmann, whom she had married in 1926. After one Warner production shot at their UK studios in 1932, Hume also started a prolific even if a short-lived career as the leading lady in Hollywood cinema, though she never became a huge star. Between 1932 and 1933 Hume acted in 11 American films, including the impostors' story Diamond Cut Diamond (Maurice Elvey, Fred Niblo, 1932), with Adolphe Menjou, the press drama Clear All Wires! (George Hill, 1933) with Lee Tracy, and Hume's last American film, The Worst Woman in Paris? (Monta Bell, 1933). From the second half of 1934, Hume acted in British films again. For some films, she was occasionally called to the US again, e.g. for Tarzan Escapes (Richard Thorpe, 1936), though not as the female star of the films anymore. In 1938 Hume quit film acting altogether, though she continued with radio and TV work. In 1938 Benita Hume married British actor Ronald Colman, with whom she appeared on the Jack Benny radio show and on the radio show 'The Halls of Ivy' (1950-1952). They co-owned a resort in California and had one daughter. After Colman's death in 1958, Hume remarried with British actor George Saunders in 1959. They remained together till her death. Benita Hume died in 1967 at Egerton, Kent, UK, due to bone cancer.
Sources: Wikipedia (English, French, and German), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Benita Hume
British postcard by Film Weekly, London, Series 112.
Benita Hume (1907-1967) was an English theatre and film actress. She appeared in 44 films between 1925 and 1955, from the silent film era to sound film. She had a prolific even if a short-lived career as the leading lady in Hollywood cinema.
Brunette Benita Hume was born in London in 1907. She did the RADA theatre academy and started to act on stage in 1924. From 1925 she played small parts in British cinema e.g. in Alfred Hitchcock's Easy Virtue (1927), and she had her first major part in the spy drama Second to None (Jack Raymond, 1927). She was one of the Sanger sisters in The Constant Nymph (Adrian Brunel, 1928), starring Ivor Novello and Mabel Poulton, and had the female lead in the period piece Balaclava (Maurice Elvey, Milton Rosmer, 1928), set during the Crimean War. Elvey shot the silent version, but Rosmer reshot much to turn it into a talkie. In A South Sea Bubble (T. Hayes Hunter, 1928) Hume was paired again with Novello, but now as the leading lady. Again Brunel directed her in A Light Woman (1928), in which she was the star, while she was the title character in The Lady of the Lake (James A. FitzPatrick, 1928). In the science fiction High Treason (Maurice Elvey, 1929), shot both as silent and sound version, pacifist women led by Hume's character and her father unite to prevent overheated leaders of the US and United Europe (it is SF!) and war-mongering financiers and agitators from engineering a second world war. Hume next played in two more crime films: The Clue of the New Pin (Athur Maude, 1929) and the German-British co-production The Wrecker (Géza von Bolváry, 1929).
In 1930 Benita Hume went to the US to act in her first Broadway play: Ivor Novello's 'Symphony in Two Flats' (1930). In the same year, she acted in the UK film version of the play. She continued to act in various British crime films and dramas by Maurice Elvey and others. In 1931 she would divorce her first husband, Eric Otto Siepmann, whom she had married in 1926. After one Warner production shot at their UK studios in 1932, Hume also started a prolific even if a short-lived career as the leading lady in Hollywood cinema, though she never became a huge star. Between 1932 and 1933 Hume acted in 11 American films, including the impostors' story Diamond Cut Diamond (Maurice Elvey, Fred Niblo, 1932), with Adolphe Menjou, the press drama Clear All Wires! (George Hill, 1933) with Lee Tracy, and Hume's last American film, The Worst Woman in Paris? (Monta Bell, 1933). From the second half of 1934, Hume acted in British films again. For some films, she was occasionally called to the US again, e.g. for Tarzan Escapes (Richard Thorpe, 1936), though not as the female star of the films anymore. In 1938 Hume quit film acting altogether, though she continued with radio and TV work. In 1938 Benita Hume married British actor Ronald Colman, with whom she appeared on the Jack Benny radio show and on the radio show 'The Halls of Ivy' (1950-1952). They co-owned a resort in California and had one daughter. After Colman's death in 1958, Hume remarried with British actor George Saunders in 1959. They remained together till her death. Benita Hume died in 1967 at Egerton, Kent, UK, due to bone cancer.
Sources: Wikipedia (English, French, and German), and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.